180 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS 
RAZORBILL. 
Auca TorDa, Linn. 
Pl. XXIX., figs. 2-8. 
Geogr. distr—Northern Europe, the coasts of Japan, the North 
Pacific Ocean, and the northern parts of eastern N. America; rarely 
in Algeria. In Great Britain it is resident from the extreme north of 
Scotland to the south of England, breeding in great numbers at 
Flamborough Head, the Orkneys, Shetlands and Hebrides. 
Food.—Fish and Crustacea. 
Nest.—None. 
Position of breeding-place.—On the bare unsheltered surface, or 
in a hole or crasny on ledges of high, rugged rocks overhanging the 
sea. 
Number of eggs.—1. 
Time of nidification—V-V1; May. 
Mr. Howard Saunders observes that, ‘as a rule, the 
Guillemots occupy one station or line of ledges on the 
rock; the Razorbills another; the Puffins a third; the 
Kittiwake Gulls a fourth; whilst the most inaccessible 
crags seem to be left for the use of the Herring Gulls. 
The Razorbills generally select the higher and rougher 
ledges, and they are partial to crevices, their eggs being 
sometimes deposited so far in that it is no easy matter to 
get at them; at other times they lay their eggs on the 
broader shelves along with the Guillemots, but not so 
closely together. At the Farne Islands (he) once saw a 
Razorbill sitting on her egg in the old nest of a Cormorant. 
When incubating they lie on their eggs, the mate often 
standing by the side of the sitting bird. Sometimes the 
male brings food to the female, but both birds take their 
turn at incubation, one having been seen to fly to the 
sitting one and give it a gentle peck, when the latter 
immediately ceded its place.”—(Yarrell’s Hist. Brit. Birds, 
4th ed., vol. iv., p. 56.) 
Mr. Theodore Walker (Zool., 1871, p. 2427) says that 
he has seen the Razorbill, seizing its young by the back of 
the neck, convey them to the sea, where, by repeatedly 
carrying them under water, it teaches them to dive. 
