THE RAZOR-BILL. 143 



or cranny to deposit their egg and rear their young. In 

 choosing a suitable place in which to deposit its egg the 

 bird almost invariably selects some hole or crevice or cleft 

 in the rock, carefully avoiding ledges and similarly exposed 

 situations. Instances have been recorded in which the egg 

 has been deposited in a Puffin burrow, and even in the 

 deserted nest of a Cormorant. Seebohm states that " both 

 birds share in the task of hatching their solitary egg-, and 

 incubation lasts about a month."" 



It is said that the young Razor-bills are some- 

 times conveyed to the water in the bill of the old bird, 

 and that on the sea they are taught to dive by their 

 parents. 



The beak is black ; it is large and much compressed, the 

 end is curved, and the extremity of the lower mandible 

 forms a salient angle with the upper one ; there are three 

 transverse grooves and one white line on the upper man- 

 dible, and two transverse grooves and a white line on the 

 lower mandible. The basal half of the beak is covered with 

 feathers. 



The sexes do not differ in plumage. From the top of: 

 the beak to each eye there is a well-defined streak of pure 

 white; irides dark brown; the whole of the head, chin, 

 throat, hind part of neck, back, wings and tail black ; the 

 tips of the secondary quill-feathers are white, forming a 

 band across the wing ; the breast, and all the under surface 

 of the body pure white ; legs, toes, and their membranes 

 brownish-black. The tail is short and pointed. The 

 entire length of the bird is about seventeen inches, being 

 rather larger than the Puffin. 



The young birds, when about three weeks old, are 

 covered with down, the whole of the upper part being of 



