154 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



August. The eye is dark brown; bill blackish- grey ; inside of mouth pale orange; 

 tarsi and feet deep brown, the front of former, and upper surface of the latter, 

 paler" (Saxby). The inside of the mouth, tarsi and feet get redder as the season 

 goes on. The dark bars on the white wing-patch are worn for more than one 

 year. 



The nestling young is covered with sooty brown-black down. 



Mr. Joseph Whitaker's noted collection of varieties of birds procured in Great 

 Britain, comprises a very curious light coloured variety of this species, which has 

 wings of a sandy colour; and the Rev. H. A. Macpherson shot a specimen in 

 Skye which had sandy- coloured flight-feathers. 



Family-ALCID/E. 



Little Auk. 



Mergulus alle, (Linn). 



THE Little Auk is an irregular winter visitor to our shores, occasionally 

 occurring in large numbers. It is naturally more abundant about the 

 northern islands, but is observed upon all parts of our coasts, both east and 

 west, down to the Channel, and in Devon and Cornwall, where, according to the 

 late E. H. Rodd, they arrive in little parties of ten or twelve, but soon get 

 broken up. Bad weather drives the Little Auk in shore ; and many instances are 

 on record of its occurrence in the most inland parts of England. It is a rare and 

 uncertain visitor to Ireland. 



In the Shetlands it is found in some numbers a few miles out to sea, and a 

 straggler now and then visits the bays and inlets, usually in fair weather only ; 

 while after gales numbers are sometimes washed ashore dead, and others driven 

 inland, where they are often found strong and active. It remains about the 



