SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



especially to the eastern side of England, while it 

 occasionally appears in Ireland. Very frequently 

 half-a-dozen or more may thus occur. Sometimes 

 they are found washed up by the tide ; sometimes 

 they are seen from a fishing-boat or a pier-head 

 and are knocked over by the boys with a gaff or a 

 stone ; sometimes they are picked up many miles 

 inland, on a ploughed field or a turnpike road, in a 

 sheep-trough or a coal-cellar, or some equally incon- 

 gruous place, where they have dropped exhausted, 

 and in almost every case, if they be still alive, death 

 soon follows their capture, even when, as now and 

 then happens, the captor has spared or tried to save 

 the life of his captive. This may be considered the 

 regular state of things, but it is marked by the 

 greatest irregularity, not only as to season of 

 the year, but as to the number of occurrences, 

 and at present it is generally impossible to 

 correlate either season or number with the con- 

 ditions of the weather — the weather, that is to 

 say, as we have it here, for one can hardly 

 doubt that these unhappy birds are the victims 

 of meteorological influence at some greater or 

 less distance from our shores. Like other extant 

 Alcidae they are strong on the wing, and of fairly 

 rapid flight, so that they are by no means so much 

 the sport of the winds as many people are apt 

 to believe, though they may well be unable to 

 contend long against a "whole gale." It seems far 

 more likely that the effect of storms upon them is 

 indirect, yet just as serious. These birds gather 

 their food, consisting chiefly of small Crustacea, by 

 diving, and it is obvious that their powers of 

 submergence must have a limit. Now it is well- 

 known that when the sea is running "mountains 

 high," its ordinary inhabitants descend to depths 

 below that to which the agitation of the water 

 extends, and it is quite conceivable that those 

 depths are beyond the reach of the birds which 

 descend from the surface to pursue and feed on the 

 other marine animals. The birds have therefore 

 to seek their living elsewhere, and thus become 

 wanderers. I think someone has suggested that it 

 is extreme cold which drive the Rotches to our 

 shores, but that can hardly be the reason, since 

 examples have not infrequently occurred in the 

 warmer months of the year, and, until the last 

 few weeks, the most numerous visitation known 

 tock place at the end of October, so that a low 

 temperature could not account for it. This was in 

 the year 1841, and, when we consider the compara- 

 tive paucity of observers and natural-history j ournals 

 more than fifty years ago, and also that it had not 

 then become customary for the village " taxider- 

 mist," where such existed, to record in the local 

 newspaper every strange bird that came into his 

 hands, it seems quite possible that the visitation of 

 that autumn may have been on as great a scale as 

 that of the present winter. It was first observed in 



the north of England, and to Yariell word was sent 

 by Dr. Edward Clarke, of Hartlepool, that after a 

 violent storm, which had lasted for several days, 

 his attention was called to flocks of birds, till then 

 unknown to the pilots and fishermen. There were 

 several hundreds of them, and five or six were 

 killed at a shot, whenthey proved to be Little Auks. 

 The same thing happened at the same time at 

 Redcar, and Yarrell heard of others obtained all 

 along the east coast to Sussex. A great many were 

 taken at Great Yarmouth ("Zoologist," p. 182). 

 Some found their way to the London market, and at 

 least two met their death in Hertfordshire, while 

 Strickland recorded ("Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History," viii., pp. 317, 318, 395) six taken 

 in Warwickshire and three in Salop. They 

 occurred also, says Thompson (" Natural History 

 of Ireland," iii., p. 218), even in the very middle of 

 the sister island. But perhaps the most curious 

 fact connected with this visitation is that the 

 survivors of it were seen a little later by John 

 Hancock ("Natural History Transactions of 

 Northumberland and Durham," vi., p. 164) in 

 the act of returning northward, continuing to pass 

 along the coast in detached flocks for several days, 

 and paying a heavy "death duty" as they went 

 their way, for no fewer than twenty-six were 

 received by him alone. 



It is too early yet to give details of the recent 

 visitation. It seems to have been first noticed 

 in Scotland, and to have exceeded in magnitude 

 any before chronicled ; but by the middle of 

 January the Yorkshire coast was strewn with 

 dead Rotches, and I am informed that 130 had 

 been noted by one Scarborough naturalist, Mr. 

 W. J. Clarke, who, a few days later, saw at least 

 200 on the wing at once. These, mounting over the 

 cliff, disappeared inland ; and then for four hours 

 he watched company after company, numbering 

 from four or five to fifty or sixty, fly southward 

 while " the sea was also full of them." For the same 

 space of time, so I learn from Dr. Hewetson, of 

 Leeds, a gunner on Filey Brigg saw an unceasing 

 stream of these birds pass southward. Similar 

 ob-ervations were made in Lincolnshire, and in 

 Norfolk upwards of 250 are known to have met 

 their death. Accounts from other parts are yet to 

 come, but there is no doubt about what they will 

 tell, and the number of observers is now so great 

 that we may rely on obtaining a pretty accurate 

 knowledge of the extent of their movements. The 

 "wreck chart," that is sure to be prepared, will 

 be looked for with interest. Whether it will throw- 

 any light on the hitherto unsolved problem of the 

 ordinary winter-resort of this and kindred species, 

 is more than I dare to predict. Let us hope that 

 it may, and that this vast and apparently useless 

 loss of life may not have been wholly unserviceable. 

 Magdelene College, Cambridge ; 14th February, 1895. 



