Birds. 9615 



December till March razorbills are scarce, aucl generally young birds. 

 The autumn moult may be perceived as early as the end of August, 

 but September is the great moulting month. Some birds late iu 

 September still have the summer dress, uliich is always coarse and 

 worn. The adult in October is in the following plumage: — Body, 

 same as in summer. Head, from the base of upper mandible, top of 

 head, round eyes and centre of nape, black ; no while Hue from bill to 

 eye; below the indented line behind eye a patch of smoke-colour. 

 Throat and cheeks white, the white extending above the indented line 

 well into the nape; the black and white feathers do not end abruptly, 

 but blend together at sides of head and neck. The plumage of a bird 

 of the year at this season is similar almost to the adult in winter, 

 except that the patch beneath the indented line is black, not smoke- 

 colour, and in many cases meets the black of the back of the neck, 

 thus separating the white of the throat from that of the head ; there is 

 no white line. The bird at this time is small, but by March it has not 

 attained anything like the size of the adults. In the following autumn 

 the year-old birds cannot be known from the adults ; so that by the 

 following spring, the bird, being under two years old, is probably able 

 to propagate its species, like the smaller gulls. 



"Two miles outside Muglins, March 25, 1862. As far as my eye 

 could reach, north and south, in the tideway running from Ireland's 

 Eye to Bray Head, seemed one vast sheet of razorbills; not one 

 guillemot, either black or common, could I see : an odd cormorant 

 and shag would be seen here and there; the common, blackheaded, 

 herring, lesser blackbacked, great blackbacked and kittiwake gulls 

 soared overhead, and a flock of manx shearwaters played out of gun- 

 shot. Most of the adult gulls seemed in summer plumage; but the 

 gulls were a moiety compared to the countless number of razorbills : 

 large as the flock appeared, at no time did you see much more than 

 half, for as many were under as above water. Their incessant diving 

 made a strong ripple on the quiet water, which literally sounded as if 

 agitated by a strong wind, while overhead the cat-like cry of the kitti- 

 wake, the bark of the common gull, the screech of the blackheaded, and 

 the laugh of the herring gull, made a medley of sounds fearful to any 

 but a naturalist's ear. To shoot above or below was next to impossible. 

 I tried one shot at a noble great blackbacked gull, but five blackheads 

 and a herring gull fell instead; the former have the heads nearly 

 brown, the latter pure white. Among the razorbills there was no 

 fighting, though birds would strike each other rising, the only token of 

 fear or anger being a guttural croak, pronounceable as " thoke." 



