128 British Birds with their Nests and Eggs. 



Faviily — AL CIDsE. 



Razorbill. 



Alca torda, LlNN. 



THB Razorbill frequents, for breeding purposes, certain rocky and precipitous 

 parts of tbe coast all round the shores of Great Britain and Ireland; it is 

 usually associated with the Guillemot, than which it is always less abundant, 

 and in recent years a considerable diminution in the numbers of the former species 

 nas been remarked upon. 



In the Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides, and some stations in Scotland, it is 

 abundant, and numbers resort to the cliffs of Flamborough Head ; but on the 

 Fames it is now one of the least common of the birds which inhabit the islands. 

 Very few appear to breed on the Sussex cliffs at the present time. It resorts to the 

 cliffs of the Isle of Wight, and to those of Dorset in numbers. In some spots on 

 the North and South coasts of Devon it breeds sparingly, and it is more abundant 

 on Lundy Island. Further west it is found breeding in Cornwall and South-west 

 Wales, while a few pairs are found at New Quay Head, and colonies exist on the 

 coast of North Wales, and on the Isle of Man. In Cumberland it breeds at St. 

 Bees. It breeds in suitable localities on the coast of eleven of the Irish counties, 

 according to Mr. Ussher's valuable account of the distribution of birds in Ireland 

 during the breeding season. 



Its arrival at, and departure from, its breeding haunts takes place at about 

 the same time as the Guillemot's. During the rest of the year it may be met with 

 in numbers in the tideway of the open sea, a few miles from land, where it follows 

 the shoals of small fish. Except at the end of summer, when the young birds 

 are still small, and in bad weather, it seldom comes close in shore, but it frequents 

 open bays and wanders far up the Bristol Channel. Proof of the presence of the 

 Razorbill, at no great distance from our shores, is often forthcoming in the shape 

 of numbers of their dead bodies washed up after heavy gales from seaward. 

 Storm- driven birds have been found inland. 



The Razorbill is an inhabitant of the North Atlantic. It breeds in the 

 Faeroes, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and some of the Baltic Islands, and on the north 

 and Brittany coasts of France, but has not been found breeding on the coast of 



