2 2 ELEMENTS OF OENITHOLOGT. 



habits, and also a most ready diver, it lives upon 'the open sea 

 save at the breeding-time, when it seeks some rocky cliff, such^ 

 as the Bass Eock or Flamborough Head. In such places they i 

 assemble in vast numbers, and G-uillemots are often seen in ; 

 thousands at their breeding-places. There each hen bird lays but 

 a single largfe egg, not deposited in any nest, but simply on 

 some ledge or in some fissure of the rocks. Their most variously 

 coloured eggs are in much request as food, and desperate risks 

 are run in obtaining them from the often precipitous localities 

 where they are laid. Toung birds, incapable of flight, are to 

 be found on the sea, though how they get there from their 

 lofty hatching-place has not yet been ascertained. 



A small bird — nearly related to the Common Guillemot — called 

 the Sea-dove or Little Auk (Alle 7iigricans), visits us in winter 

 from Spitzbergen. There it breeds in incredible numbers. It 

 is more commonly to be found in the Orkneys and Shetlands 

 than further south in our Islands. 



The Eazorbill (Alca tarda) is very like a Guillemot, save for 

 its high, sharp-edged, and hooked bill. It is confined to the 

 North Atlantic Ocean, and such prolongations of that ocean as 

 the British Seas. There it catches fish with great dexterity, , 

 pursuing them under water in what may be called aquatic 

 flight, as its wings as well as its webbed feet aid its pursuit. 

 Its principal interest, however, consists in the fact that it is the 

 nearest living representative of the Great Auk or Gare-fowl ; 

 (Aka impennis), which seems to have become extinct about 

 the year 1844. Some 76 skins and 9 skeletons, with 68 

 eggs and a few bones, preserved in collections, are all the relics 

 we have of this strange Bird. It had absolutely no power of 

 flight, and was as large as a Goose. On land it ran and walked 

 in an upright attitude, but dived and swam under water with 

 extreme celerity and ease. Two hundred and seventy years ago ] 

 hundreds at a time could be taken at the coast of Newfound- ^ 

 land ; but the last one recorded to have been taken in our 

 Islands was at Waterford Harbour in 1834. Its breeding- 

 places ranged from the north of Scotland, the Hebrides and 

 Iceland, to Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia, and it 

 was entirely confined to the Northern Hemisphere. 



Another strictly aquatic and marine Bird with no powers of 

 flight is now entirely confined to the Southern Hemisphere. 

 This is the King Penguin (Aptenodytes longirostris), which may 

 be selected as an example of about a dozen and half of Penguins 



