238 Order XV 



Harbour (Ireland) respectively. Of old the bird also 

 inhabited Labrador, southern Greenland, the coasts of 

 Scandinavia, Denmark, and the Faeroes, but never 

 extended north of the Arctic Circle. Eighty skins and 

 seventy-three eggs are in existence ; the latter are 

 white with black or reddish brown spots or scrawls, 

 and measure no less than 4| inches in length. The 

 Great Auk was black above and white below, with 

 a white patch in front of the eye, and a much com- 

 pressed and corrugated black bill. Its remains have 

 been found in ancient refuse-heaps in northern and 

 western Scotland, Durham, and Ireland, besides abroad. 



The Razorbill (Alca tor da) resembles a small Great 

 Auk, without the white eye-patch, but with a white 

 line across the much compressed and grooved bill ; 

 it is found from Jan Mayen in the Arctic regions to 

 the Bay of Fundy and Brittany in the Atlantic, but 

 not in the Pacific. It breeds in hollows of cliffs or on 

 ledges, and lays a white or brownish egg, richly marked 

 with black or brown, in company with the Guillemots, 

 which usually outnumber it, especially in their well- 

 known haunts at the Fame Islands on the Northumber- 

 land coast. They arrive at these haunts early in April 

 and leave punctually in August, but may be observed 

 in the tideway at all seasons, and are often found dead 

 on the shore in quantities after a severe winter storm. 



The Common Guillemot (Uria troile), which breeds 

 from Bear Island of the Spitsbergen group to the Baltic 

 and Portugal, as well as on the Atlantic coast of America 

 down to about the same latitude, also occurs as a 

 slightly different form in the Pacific. It is the " Wil- 

 lock" or "Murre" of fishermen and the "Loom" of 

 the Arctic regions, where the " loomeries " of this and 



