SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



VISITATIONS OF THE ROTCHE OR LITTLE AUK. 

 By Professor Newton, F.R.S. 



A MONG the many puzzles which await further 

 ■^^ elucidation at the hands of ornithologists, and 

 especially the ornithologists of this country, is that 

 of the winter-resort of the millions of birds of the 

 family Alcidae, which have their summer home on 

 the cliffs of some of the British islands and of 

 Arctic lands so far as man is yet known to have 

 penetrated. The species are few in number, but 

 the indi- 

 viduals 



are count- ._- ^==1=11 



less, tho' ..;£_-" """■_:_ 



they seem 



to escape 



the notice ' j y Jnjpg .v 



of those l -"--.' 



people '--" $1361 E§j§flj^Sf£jjg|: 

 who occu- 

 py their 

 business 

 on the 

 great wa- 

 ters, and 

 not only 

 are re- 

 cords of 

 the obser- 

 vation of 

 these birds 

 on the 

 high seas 

 almost 

 wholly 

 wanting— 

 a brief 

 passage in 



Audubon's "Ornithological Biography " (iv. p. 304) 

 is the only one I can call to mind at this moment— but 

 I have in vain questioned intelligent men, who have 

 often crossed the Atlantic from October to March, 

 for information on the subject. Setting aside the 

 Dovekeys, Guillemots, Razorbills and Puffins which 

 frequent our own coasts, we may here consider the 

 case of the kindred forms which inhabit higher 

 barren latitudes.' The Ddvekey and Puffin of 

 March, 1895.— No. »3. Vol. II. 



The Rotchis or Little Auk. {After Bewick.) 



Spitsbergen, whether they be regarded as local 

 races or good species, have never, to our knowledge, 

 suffered death within British jurisdiction. The 

 Guillemot of Spitzbergen, which commonly bears 

 the name of the Danish zoologist, Briinnich (who, 

 twenty years before our own Pennant, first gave a 

 connected account of northern ornithology) has 

 long been accounted a " British bird," though on 



very insuf- 



f i c i e n t 



: ^rf2 : ^ ■ testimony, 



and the 

 e v i d e n ce 

 of its oc- 

 currence 

 on the 

 shores of 

 the Euro- 

 pean Con- 

 tinent is 

 almost as 

 slight. 

 Spitzber- 

 gen and 

 Greenland 

 are the 

 chief a- 

 bodes of 

 a still 

 smaller 

 species of 

 the fami- 

 ly — the 

 Rotche — 

 so familiar 

 to all who 

 have visited the Arctic seas, and not unknown to the 

 English reader by its book-name of the" Little Auk," 

 the Alca allc of Linnaeus and Mergulus ailt of most 

 modern authors. No bigger than the Dabchick of 

 our ponds, not a year passes without this little 

 bird (which may be found well described in standard 

 works, such as that of Yarrell or of Mr. Dresser) 

 paying a visit — inadvertently we may be almost 

 sure — to some part or other of Great Britain, and 



