LITTLE AUK. 127 



confluent, and form a very big patch. Varieties also occur in 

 which the ground-colour is of a faint lilac, with blotches of 

 brown and grey of about equal size occurring all over the egg. 

 Axis, 2*1-2-55 inches; diam., 1-55-17. 



THE ROTCHES, OR LITTLE AUKS. GENUS ALLE. 

 Alle> Link. Beschr. Nat. Samml. Univ. Rostock, i. p. 17 (1806). 



Type A. alk (Linn.). 



The Little Auks are of diminutive size, with a small swollen 

 bill without any sulcations or ridges ; the culmen is rounded, 

 the length from the gape to the tip of the bill being less than 

 the middle toe and claw, and there is no notch near the end 

 of the upper mandible. The nostrils are ovate and exposed, 

 the frontal plumes not impinging upon the nasal apertures. 

 The line of the tomia, or cutting edge of the bill, is 

 decurved. 



I. THE LITTLE AUK. ALLE ALLE. 



Alca alle, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 211 (1766); Seebohm, Hist. 



Brit. B. iii. p. 380(1885). 

 Mergulus alle, Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 340 (1852); Dresser, B. 



Eur. viii. p. 591, pi. 624 (1877); B. O. U. List Brit. B. 



p. 208 (1883); Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iv. p. 85 



(1884); id. Man. Brit. B. p. 689 (1889); Lilford, Col. 



Fig. Brit. B. part xxiii. (1893). 



(Plate CIX.) 



Adult. General colour above black, varied on the scapulars 

 with a few white streaks, these, feathers being edged with 

 white ; wings and tail black, the secondaries tipped with white ; 

 sides of head and throat and fore-neck sooty black ; remain- 

 der of under surface from the chest downwards pure 

 white ; the flanks streaked with black, the feathers being 

 internally black, externally white ; under wing-coverts and 

 axillaries blackish ; the greater coverts and the lower primary- 

 coverts tipped with white ; quills ashy below ; bill leaden 

 black ; feet and toes livid brown, the webs darker ; iris hazel 

 Total length, 7-5 inches; culmen, 0*65; wing, 4-65 ; tail, 1-3; 

 tarsus, 07. 



