472 THE DIVING BIRDS — I'YGOPODES. 



much unliko the Pengwin ; they are in the Spring very fat, or rather oyly, but pullJ 

 and garbidg'd, and laid to the Fire to roast, tliey yield not one drop," This autlur 

 lived eight years in Scarborough, a hundred leagues east of Boston. Tliis renders it 

 liighly ])robable that the Auk was then common in Casco Bay, where its bones are 

 now found in shell-heaps. 



In II Guxetiiere Amci'icano, published in Leghorn, in 17G3 (Vol. III. p. IfiS), 

 under the head of Newfoundland, is the following paragraph : " The bird which is 

 represented in the annexed plate [a very good figure of P. unpennlx'] is found more 

 fre(piently here than elsewhere. Although commonly called the IVnguin of the 

 north, it is cpiite different from the true Penguin of the south, with whicjh by some it 

 is wrongly confounded. In size it is ecjual to the common domestic Goose ; and the 

 better to judge of this in the plate the head and bill iire given the size of life." 



In "A Discovrse and Discovery of Nevv-fo"nd-land," etc., by Captain llichard 

 Whitbourne, of Exmouth, in the ccmnty of Devon, imprinted at London by Felix 

 Kingston, 1622 {\). 9), is the following: "These Venguins are as bigge as (Jeese, and 

 llye not, for they haue but a little short wing; and they multiplie so infinitely, vpon 

 a certain fiat Hand, that men driue tliem from thence vpon a boord, into tlieir boats 

 by hundreds at a time ; as if God had made t\w. innocency of so poore a creature, to 

 become such an admirable instrument for the sustentation of man." 



In a des(u-iption of Greenland by Hans Egcde, translated and published at London 

 (2d ed.), 1S18 [author's date, Copenhagen, July 20, 171S], we find : " There is another 

 sea-bird, which the Norway-men call Alkes, which in the winter season contributes 

 much to the maintenance of the Grcenlanders. Sometimes there are such nundn'rs 

 of them that they drive them in large Hocks to the shore, where they catch them with 

 their hands " (pp. 95-98). 



In "New Voyages to North America," from 1(583 to 1094, by the Baron Lahontan, 

 Lord Lieutenant, etc., translated from the French, London, 1735 (Vol. I. j). 241), 

 oc(!urs the following: "Tin; Moytn'ks are a sort of Fowl, as big as a Goose, having 

 a short Necrk and a broad Foot ; and which is very strange, their Eggs are h.alf as big 

 again as a Swan's, and yet they are all Yelk, and that so thick, that they must be 

 diluted with Water before they can be iis'd as l*ancakes." 



Gknus ALCA, LixN-^Jus. 



Alca, LiNV. S. N. ed. 10, I. 1758, 130 ; ed. 12, I. 1766, 210 (type, A. hrda, Linx.). 

 Vtnmania, Lkach, Syst. Cat. Urit. Mus. 1816 (same type). 



jl I Char. Similar to I'lautus, but smaller, tlie wings wull developeil, so ns to a<lmit of loiig- 



susti.iiied fliglit ; bill much shorter than the head, the culmeu nmch arched from the base, the 

 maxilla with only tliree to five sulci, the mandible with but two or three, and these indistinct. 



There is but one species of tliis genus, the well-known Razor-bill Auk (A. lunla), common to 

 both sides of the North Atlantic. 



Alca torda. 



THE BAZOB-BILLES AVK. 



Alca tor'fa, Link. S. N. I. 1758, 130 (adult) ; ed. 12,1. 1766, 210. — AuD. Orn. Biog. III. 1835, 112 ; 



V. 1839, 428, pi. 214. —Cass, in Bnird's B. X. Am. 1858, 001. — Baiud, Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, 



no. 711. — CouEs, Check List, 1873, no. 616. 

 Ulamania tordn. Leach, Stephens's Gen. Zool. .Xlll. 1825, 27. — Coues, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sci. Philnd. 



1868, 18; Key, 1872, 340; 2d Check List, 1882, no. 877. — KiDow. Noni. N. Am. B. 1881, 



no. 742. 

 Alca pica, Li.nn. S. N. 1, 1766, 210 (young, or winter plumage). 



