204 BULLETIN 107, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
toward each other, differing greatly in this respect from the young 
puffins, which were continually quarreling. They stood almost 
upright.” The young remain on the cliffs where they were hatched 
and are fed by their parents until they are about half grown and 
still unable to fly. The old birds then persuade, induce, or even 
force them to fly or throw themselves down to the sea, an operation 
which requires considerable urging on the part of the parents and 
often results fatally for the young birds, in case they happen to fall 
on the rocks. Yarrell (1871) quotes from an interesting account 
given by Mr. Theodore Walker, who has seen this performance in 
the Hebrides: 
The habits of the razorbill and guillemot are very similar; they both take 
about three weeks and four days from the time they are hatched until they 
leave the islands. When once they are enticed down they do not return to the 
rocks; not being full-fledged they could not very well fly up. They generally 
fly down to the sea before sunrise. I have seen scores fly down to the sea on 
a fine morning. At the time they leave they are not full-fledged, only the 
wing and tail being feathered; the neck and line of the spine from the wing 
to the tail is still downy. I observed one razorbill enticing her young one to 
follow her down to the sea. I do not think it got any food that day, as it ran 
about from one bird to another, erying all day and all night; until nearly day- 
light it was still crying, but by the time I put out the light it was nowhere 
to be seen; doubtless the mother had returned about that time and enticed it 
off with food. Sometimes when the young one is obstinate, the mother will 
take it by the back of the neck and fly down to the sea. It is great fun 
watching the old bird teaching the young one to dive; the mother takes it by 
the neck and dives with it; up comes the young one again, only to get another 
dose; but the young bird can not remain so long under water as the mother, 
and it often dodges her by diving for an instant. The young birds remain in 
the sea for one or two days, when they all prepare to leave, the old birds get- 
ting restless and taking short flights. One can generally tell the night before 
they leave, as they make such a noise; should the wind be favorable they take 
their departure before sunrise in small strings. : 
Plumages——The downy young is covered with soft thick down. 
“blackish-brown” basally above, clear “bone brown” on the rump, 
and paler buffy on the breast; the longer filaments on the upper 
parts are paler at the tips, grayish white or buffy on the back becom- 
ing more rufous on the crown; the colors fade, as the chick grows, 
and the light, downy tips, which give the youngest, birds a decidedly 
hoary appearance and conceal the darker plumage under them, wear 
away or drop off, exposing the dark, “brownish black” juvenal 
plumage of the upper parts. Macgillivray (1852) gives an excellent 
account of the progress toward maturity which I quote, in part, as 
follows: 
: When about a fortnight old the covering is not down, properly so called, 
but a downy plumage, composed of regularly formed, downy, oblong, very soft, 
weak feathers, with disunited downy filaments; those on the head and neck 
extremely soft, on the lower parts a little firmer, and on the upper somewhat 
