44 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
ten or twelve birds were taken on the Detroit River.” Mr. Purdy, of 
Plymouth, Michigan, says that one was taken alive at Walled Lake, Oakland 
County, by some fishermen and given to William Stark of Northville, who 
kept it alive in his store where he (Mr. Purdy) saw and identified it. The 
bird afterward died and was thrown away. A similar invasion occurred in 
Dec., 1907, and numerous specimens were taken about Lake St. Clair and 
in the vicinity of Detroit between Dec. 1st and 10th. 
The causes for the southward migration of these sea-birds, and especially 
for their appearance so far inland are entirely unknown. Mr. James H. 
Fleming of Toronto has been collecting data in regard to the “Great Flight” 
of 1895-96, and I am informed through Mr. P. A. Taverner that so far as 
known the stomach of every bird captured was entirely empty and the 
birds were all much emaciated and enfeebled, so much so that many of the 
specimens were readily captured by hand. In the vicinity of Toronto 
scores, perhaps hundreds, were found and there is reason to believe that the 
birds came south from the Arctic regions by thousands and that they could 
not, or at least did not, find suitable food to keep them alive. 
This bird breeds on the Magdalene Islands, Gulf of St. Lawrence and 
northward, laying a single heavily spotted egg on the bare rock of the 
cliff. The eggs average 3.21 by 2.01 inches. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
In winter upper parts dusky or slate-colored, the secondaries alone tipped with white. 
Below, pure white from chin to tail, including most of the sides of the head and neck, but 
in young birds the white throat is more or less washed with dusky. A distinct groove or 
furrow in the plumage behind the eye. Length, 14.50 to 18.50; wing, 7.45 to 8.80 inches; 
culmen, 1.40 to 1.50; tarsus, 1.40 to 1.55. 
7. Little Auk. Alle alle (Linn.). (34) 
Synonyms: Dovekie, Sea-dove.—Alea alle, Linn., 1758.—Alle alle, Stejn., 1885, and 
most subsequent authors. 
Smallest of the family and resembling a miniature of Briinnich’s Murre, 
but of decidedly smaller size and proportionately smaller bill. 
Distribution.—Coasts and islands of the northern Atlantic and eastern 
Arctic oceans; in North America south in winter to New Jersey; breeds in 
high northern latitudes. 
This is an Arctic species confined as a rule tothe sea and found inland 
as a rule only when driven there by severe storms. There seems to be but 
one record for Michigan, that by the late W. H. Collins of Detroit, whose 
record (O. & O. Vol. VII, p. 111, 1882) is as follows. ‘I received a fine 
specimen of the sea dove killed here on Detroit River by one of our market 
hunters. It was swimming among his decoy ducks. It proved to be a 
young female.” In corroboration of this record Mr. Covert writes me 
that he saw the specimen and received the full history of its capture from 
Mr. Collins, and has no reason to doubt the record. The specimen itself 
may possibly be in existence still, but we have not been able to locate it. 
The species migrates southward along the Atlantic coast with some 
regularity every winter and specimens are often taken along the coast of 
Maine and Massachusetts, not infrequently in fresh water ponds ten to 
fifty miles from the seashore. There is a record also of a specimen taken 
on Lake Ontario two miles from Toronto on November 18, 1901 (Auk, 
Vol. XIX, p. 94). 
