254 AVES. 



summer, and everywhere mottled witli white in winter : the bill and feet red. Its range is more northerly, rarely 

 if ever breeding to the southward of the Scottish Isles, and producing two and often three eggs, proportionally 

 smaller, and singularly different from those of the other, both in shape and colour. It is less allied to the Common 

 GuiUemot than the latter is to the Auks, with which an intermediate species, rarely found on the British coasts, 

 tends even to connect it,— the U. Bninnichii, which scarcely differs except in the more robust form of the bill. 

 There is also a breed of the Common Guillemot found on the Welsh coast, and some other places, which has a 

 narrow white line from the bill to the eye, as in the Razor-billed Auk.] 



The Rotche {Cephus, Cuv. \_Mergulus, Ray and Vieillot]), — 

 Has a shorter' bill, more arcuated above, and unemarginated ; the symphysis of the lower mandible 

 extremely short. Its wings are stronger, and the membranes of the feet somevphat notched. 



The known species, termed Little Auk and Greenland Dove, (C. alle ; Colymbus minor, Gmelin), is not larger 

 than a Pigeon, and black above, white below, with the same mark on the wing as the Common Guillemot. It 

 inhabits the arctic shores, where it breeds on the ground, and is occasionally met with in our latitudes during the 

 winter. 



The genus of 



The Auks {Alca, Lin.) — 



Is known by its extremely compressed beak, raised vertically, sharp along the ridge, and ordinarily 



grooved on the sides, together with its feet entirely palmated and without back toe, the same as in tlie 



Guillemots. The species arc all from the northern seas. 



They require to be divided into three subgenera. 



The Puffins {Fratercula, Brisson ; Mormon, lUiger), — 

 Of which the beak, shorter than the head, is as high or higher than it is long, giving it a very 

 extraordinary form, while its base is generally furnished with a folded skin. The nostrils, placed 

 near its edge, are mere shts. Their short wings can just sustain them for a brief period, and they 

 reside in the ocean like the Guillemots, and nestle in the rocks, [or rather they burrow holes in loose 

 soil, and lay their single egg at the depth of several feet. They run or creep swiftly on the ground, 

 and the Auks and Guillemots can also waddle with more speed than might be anticipated from the 

 shortness of their legs]. 



The common species {Alca arctica, Lin. ; Mormon fratercula, Tem.), is a littia larger than a Pigeon, with black 

 mantle, calotte, and collar, and the rest white. [Legs orange ; bill brightly coloured; and a slip of loose skin at 

 each eye. It is common in suitable localities on the British shores, flies rapidly, and may often be seen to return 

 to its mate or young, with a number of small fishes curiously ranged on each side of its bill, each held by the head. 

 The young are at first covered with long and flocculent black down, which is replaced by delicately soft plumage 

 analogous to that of the young Guillemot, succeeded by the adult garb in the course of a few weeks, which last 

 tmdergoes no seasonal changes]. 



M. Temminck distinguishes as 



The Phalerins (Phaleris, Tem.), 

 Those species which have the beak less elevated ; as, 



The Alca cristatella, Vieillot, and A. psittacula, Pallas. [Six species are known on the arctic shores of America, 

 one forming the Ceratorynchus, Bonap. ; some of these extend to the north of Siberia.] 



The Restricted Auks {Alca, Cuv.) — 

 Have a more lengthened beak, resembling the blade of a knife ; feathers at its base as far as the nos- 

 trils, [the same as in the Guillemots, to which they are most nearly allied,] and wings decidedly too 

 small to support them, inasmuch as they cannot fiy at all ; [an erroneous statement respecting one of 

 the two species]. 



The Razor-bill Auk (Alca tarda and pica, Gmelin). [Plumage and seasonal changes of the Common Guillemot, 

 only that the black is more deep, and some white transverse lines on the bill. It is rather smaller than that spe- 

 cies, which it exactly resembles in habit and extent of wing, flying equally well : inhabits the same clift's, but less 

 numerously ; and commonly lays two eggs, sometimes three, of similar character to those of the Black Guillemot : 

 has a croaking voice] 



The Great Auk (A. impennis, Lin.).— Colours of the preceding, but the beak marked with eight or ten cross 

 grooves, and an oval white spot between the eye and bill. It lays but one great egg, spotted with purplish. [This 

 species, which is larger than a Goose, is the only northern sea-fowl utterly deprived of the function of flight, and 

 has accordingly its wings reduced to exactly that size which is most efficient of all for subaquatic progression : 

 they are not larger than very moderate-sized fins, and the limb-bones arc considerably weightier and less solid 

 than those of its congener ; but we are not aware that tlie skeleton makes any approach in form to that of the 



