ALCAD^J. 547 



Family ALCAD^I. 



Of the Alcadae or Auks I can include five out of 

 the eight species usually considered as British: they 

 are all rather accidental stragglers to our shores ; 

 one of them, the Little Auk, very much so, only 

 making an occasional appearance in very bad 

 weather; the other three species hreed in con- 

 siderable numbers at Lundy Island and other places 

 at the mouth of the Bristol Channel, from whence 

 they wander as far up channel as Porlock Bay and 

 Minehead, off both which places I have seen them 

 when I have been on a summer cruise. 



COMMON GUILLEMOT, Uria troile. The Common 

 Guillemot is very common and resident throughout 

 nearly the whole of the English coast, collecting at 

 the various breeding stations in the summer, and 

 spreading about in various parts of the sea in search 

 of food as soon as the young are sufficiently ad- 

 vanced to take care of themselves. When collected 

 at the breeding stations they may be seen in 

 thousands, some on the water engaged in fishing, 

 and others standing in long rows on the rocks, 

 lining every available ridge like detachments of 

 skirmishers. The nearest large breeding stations 

 to us are at Lundy Island and on the south coast of 

 Wales, particularly about Tenby, at both of which 

 places Puffins, Guillemots and Kazorbills collect in 



