Periodical 
visitant. 
436 NATATORES. ALCA. Razor-BILL AUK. 
length as those of the Guillemot, and reaching, when closed, 
as far as the rump. Like that bird, its flight is rapid, and 
sustained by very quickly repeated strokes of the pinions, 
but (unless when making an effort to reach the ledge of rock 
on which it breeds) always at a low elevation, just clearing 
even the surface of the water. It is common upon the Eng- 
lish coast during the summer in its black-headed or nuptial 
dress, congregating in the same localities, and frequently 
breeding in company with the Guillemot, which it resembles 
in general appearance, and also in the change of plumage it 
undergoes. By many writers, the young as well as the old 
birds, in the winter clothing, have been described as a dis- 
tinct species, under the title of Alca Pica; and as Montracu 
decidedly favours this opinion in his Ornithological Diction- 
ary, doubts are still entertained on the subject, although the 
subsequent investigations of Temmincx, Fremine, and 
other distinguished practical ornithologists, have decidedly 
proved the fallacy of the opinion. The same suppositions 
that led Monracu astray with regard to the Guillemot, ap- 
pear to have operated in the case of the Razor-bill, viz. that 
the old birds of both species always retained the black head 
and neck, and that the English and the southern part of the 
Scottish coast were the limit of the polar migration of these 
distinct species; for it is upon these assumptions that his 
arguments in favour of the separation of each species into 
two are founded. In the article “* Auk, razor-billed,” in the 
Supplement to his Ornithological Dictionary, he also seems 
to have repeated the mistake that I have previously adverted 
to under the Guillemot, viz. of describing as a young bird 
what appears to have been in reality an adult in a state of 
moult; his description exactly agreeing with specimens I 
have seen in that state; and at which period they are some- 
times unable to fly, from casting their quill-feathers. But it 
generally happens that, before this change takes place, they 
have left our shores for more open parts of the ocean, or 
gone to more southern districts. In winter their place is 
