BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
97 
the necessary warmth during her absence. When the weather is cloudy, 
and even during the cool nights, she remains on the nest, the male, as a 
faithful husband, doubtless answering her calls for food, or keeping her 
company. 
That these birds manifest true affection for each other cannot he 
denied. They may have a different way of showing it from what we are 
accustomed to see among our small land-birds, but we cannot speak with 
positiveness. But this much is undisj)uted, when one is killed, its mate 
does not desert it, but jjaddles around it, as if seeking the cause of 
its stillness. At such times, so absorbed does it become, whether from 
grief or wonder we cannot say, that it can easily be approached and 
knocked over with an oar. 
The food of the Bazor-bills consists of small fishes, roe, shrimps, 
various marine animals, and floating garbage, which they procure by diving 
and swimming, or pick up among the rocks which they frequent. The 
young doubtless subsist upon the same materials, which they receive from 
their parents, in small pieces, during their earliest life. But after they 
have passed the downy stage, and are thrown, in a measure, upon their 
own resources, they imitate the example of their parents. 
So much like the eggs of the Foolish Guillemot or Murre, already 
mentioned, are those of this species, that it is imjjossible to discern a 
characteristic so peculiar and persistent as to enable us to distinguish 
them apart. The ground-color is generally a pure-white; but sjDecimens 
are often met with which are cream-colored, and others, again, which are 
tinted with green. The spots and blotches are irregularly distributed, hut 
chiefly about the middle and the larger end. Some are small and nearly 
round, others large and irregular. In color they show different shades of 
black and brown. In addition to these markings, there are others scat- 
tered over the egg, of an obscure-purple hue, which have the appearance 
of being beneath the outside of the shell. The eggs vary in shaj)e ; occa- 
sionally they are pyriform and ovoidal, and, at other times, decidedly ovate. 
