BLACK-BILLED AUK, AND PUFFIN. . 511 



breeding feafon, to the cliffs in flocks, where each knows its ftation. 



Feed on the cancer ■pedatus, and other marine infefts j and grow 



very fat. In winter, refort to the bays to feed ; but at night return 



to fea. Vie with the Eider-duck, in point of utility to the Greenland- ' 



ers. The flcins are ufed for cloathing : the raw fat is fucked as 



broth: the flefh, half putrid, is much admired : and the whole fowl;, 



drefled with the inteftines in it, efteemed a high .delicacy. 



They are taken in the fea with darts; or, chaced in canoes, arc 

 driven on fliore, and killed by the perfons who wait for them ; or 

 are taken in nets made of fplit whalebone. They are the chief food 

 of the natives during February and March *. 



The Alca Balthica of Brunnkb, N° 115, is a variety of thefe birds, 

 only wants the white line from the bill to the eyes. 



Br. Zed. ii. N° 232.— S'a'w. 358.— Le Macareux, PL Enl. 27^..— Latham, iii. ^27. Poffik. 



Alea ArSica, Feun, Suec N° 141.. — Lev. Mus. — Bl. Mus. 



A With a Ihort bill, deep at the bafe, ridged, triangular, ending 

 in a fharp point ; bafe ftrongly rimmed; upper part blueifh 

 grey ; lower red ; both furrowed tranfverfely : crown, and upper 

 part of the body, wings, and tail, black : cheeks white, bounded by 

 grey: breaft and belly white : legs orange- colored. Weight twelve 

 ounces. Length twelve inches. Extent twenty-one. 



Inhabits all the coafls of northern Europe, the icy fea, and all the Placer 



way to Kamtjchatka ; where they are larger and blacker than ufual, 

 and their crown cinereous. Found in the Feroe ifles, where they are 

 called Lunda; extends to Iceland, Greenland, and Spitzbergen. Catejhy 

 enumerates this fpecies, and fays that the Great Auk, and Razor- 

 BiLi, frequent the coafts of Carolina during winter -j-. In the fame fea.- 

 fon, numbers of thefe birds, and the Razor-^ills, frequent the coaft 

 of Andalufia ; but difappear in the fpring. It is fuppofed that they 

 continue fwimming from the northern parts in fearch of food ; the 

 fifh of the fofcer latitudes not retiring to the great deeps out of their 

 reach, as is the cafe with the fifh of more rigorous climates. 



• Craniz, \, 48, f Catsfiv, App. xxxvi. 



\ ' - A. With 



