LITTLE AUK 495 



subsequently noticed that the parents had their cheeks 

 distended with a reddish substance, consisting of immense 

 numbers of minute crustaceans, which were evidently in- 

 tended as food for the young" (Saunders). 



Nest. In the spring season, as our cliffs are becoming 

 tenanted by great throngs of allied species (Kazorbills, 

 Puffins, and Guillemots), the Little Auk deserts us for 

 higher latitudes. 



The single egg is usually laid in the recess of a sloping 

 cliff (sometimes quite low down), in holes, and under stones ; 

 in other cases it is deposited on a headland hundreds of feet 

 above the level of the sea. The egg is pale sea-blue in 

 colour ; in some examples indistinct reddish-brown spots 

 and streaks are to be seen. 



Incubation does not appear to become general until about 

 the middle of June. 



Geographical distribution. This species ranges in the 

 breeding-season in many countries of Arctic Europe, from 

 Iceland eastward to Novaya Zemlya. In Spitzbergen, and 

 as far as the drift ice at lat. 82 N., astonishing numbers 

 assemble. Off Franz Josef Land Dr. Nansen observed it 

 as early as February 25th, 1896 (Saunders). Westward 

 the breeding-range extends from Greenland to the eastern 

 side of Arctic Canada, where the bird abounds, though west 

 of Baffin Bay, in Behring Sea, the Arctic regions of the 

 Asiatic Continent, and in the Pacific Ocean, it would appear 

 that it has not been traced. 



In autumn and winter the Little Auk is distributed 

 over the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean and North 

 Sea, migrating south to about lat. 35 N. 



Considering the enormous numbers of colonies and the 

 countless throngs which compose them, it seems evident 

 that the birds must scatter themselves over a vast area 

 of oceanic water during their southern peregrinations in 

 autumn and winter, for at such times they are never seen 

 in anything like the numbers in which they congregate to 

 breed. 



DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 



PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. Top of head, hind- 

 neck, back, scapulars, wings, rump, and upper tail-coverts, 

 glossy greyish-black ; rest of head, sides and front of neck, 

 chin, and throat, sooty-black ; scapulars margined with 



