DIG MEDEA A LCA 861 



in Norway ; Tachypetes aquilus is stated to have been obtained 

 on the Weser in 1792; Phccton cethereus, Linn., is said to have 

 been obtained at Cradle} 7 , Lancashire, and to have been seen 

 off Heligoland ; a specimen of Prion arid, Gould, in the Gould 

 collection, is stated to have 'been obtained off Madeira ; and 

 Daption capensis (Linn.) has been procured off the Irish, English, 

 and French coasts ; but as all these records are more or less 

 doubtful, and these species are strictly non-Holarctic, I have 

 not deemed it necessary to include them. 



ALCA, Linn., 1766. 

 1187. RAZORBILL. 

 ALCA TORDA. 



Alca torda, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 210 (1766) ; Naum. xii. p. 606, Taf. 



336 ; Audubon, B. Am. vii. p. 247, pi. 466 ; Hewitson, ii. p. 468, 



pi cxxviii ; Gould, B. of E. v. pi. 401 ; id. B. of Gt. Brit. v. pi. 47 ; 



Dresser, viii. p. 557, pi. 619 ; Ogilvie Grant, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxvi. 



p. 565 ; Kidgway, p. 18 ; Saimders, p. 695 ; Lilford, vi. p. 79, 



pi. 36. 



Pingouin macropUre, French ; Gfazza-marina, Ital. ; Tordalk, 

 German ; Alka, Klumba, Icel. ; AUc, Dutch ; Almindelig Alk, 

 Dan. ; Bredncebbet Alke, Norweg. ; Tordmule, Swed. ; Ruokki, 

 Finn. 



ad. (Greenland). Upper parts, wings, and tail glossy black ; sides 

 of head and throat brownish black ; a white line from the ridge of the 

 upper mandible on each side to the eye ; short secondaries tipped with 

 white ; under parts white ; bill black with a curved vertical white line on 

 each side ; legs and iris black. Gape 2'0, wing 8'1, tail 3'4, tarsus T35 

 inch. Sexes alike. In winter the throat and sides of the head and neck 

 are white, and the upper parts duller and browner. The young bird 

 resembles the adult in winter, but has the bill shorter, weaker, and less 

 elevated. 



Hal. The North Atlantic, not further than about 73 N., 

 south to the Mediterranean ; the Azores and the Canaries ; on 

 the American coasts to southern New England. 



The Razorbill is essentially a sea-bird, and on the water 

 swims and dives with the greatest ease, and its flight is direct 

 and rapid. Its food consists of small fish, which it obtains by 

 diving. It breeds on the ledges of cliffs close to the sea, almost 

 always in societies, frequently in countless numbers, generally 

 in company with one or other of the species of Guillemot, de- 

 positing in May, on the bare ground, a single egg, which is 

 pyriform in shape, rather elongated, in ground-colour buffy 



