512 Alcadce. 



for they were given me by Mr. Waterton when I was on a 

 visit to him at Walton Hall, and he described to me how he took 

 them with his own hands at Flamborough Head, on the coast of 

 Yorkshire, when he made the perilous descent of that lofty cliff, 

 and was let down by a rope from the top, after the custom of the 

 adventurous fishermen who have pursued that dangerous practice 

 for generations. The young bird, when about three weeks old, is 

 carried down to the sea on the back of the mother, who soon in- 

 structs it in the arts of swimming and diving, and carries it out 

 to sea far from the shore. This is another species which 

 penetrates to Polar regions. Nordenskiold* observed it in great 

 numbers hovering about the tops of the rocks, and settling on the 

 ledges in Northern Spitzbergen, as early as the 4th of March ; 

 and Sir Edward Parry met with it in latitude 81. As regards 

 the name, we have adopted the French term, ' Guillemot/ derived 

 from the cry of the adult; but on the south coast it is called 

 ' Willock' or ' Willy/ which is supposed to represent the cry of 

 the young bird. Elsewhere it is known as 'Murre,' from the 

 murmuring noise of the assembled multitudes at their breeding 

 haunts: and by the fishermen on the east coast as 'Scout/ 

 perhaps from its short or 'cutty' tail; also as 'Marrock' or 

 'Marrot.' In Sweden it is Sill Grissla, or 'Herring Grissler'; 

 and in Germany, Dumme Lumme; and by us the 'Foolish 

 Guillemot/ because it is so unsuspicious of harm, and so con- 

 fiding as oftentimes to endanger its life. In Portugal it is Airo. 

 The B.O.U. Committee says that the specific name, troile, was in- 

 tended as a compliment to Troil the Icelander. 



214. LITTLE AUK (Mergulus alle). 



This is another thoroughly oceanic bird, and chiefly at 

 home in the more northern part of the Polar seas, where it 

 has accompanied the most intrepid of the Arctic explorers to 

 the farthest point attained by them. It is commonly known 

 to English sailors and to Arctic voyagers generally as the 

 'Rotche/ and the numbers congregated in some spots of the 

 Nordenskiold's ' Arctic Voyages,' p. 217. 



