LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS. 207 
Although the razor-billed auk is said to be of a quarrelsome dis- 
position, I saw no evidence of it on Bird Rock, where it associates 
on friendly terms with the murres and puffins, sitting in little mixed 
groups close together on their favorite rocks. It has few enemies, 
though it is preyed upon by the large falcons to some extent. Its 
habit of nesting in inaccessible crevices on high cliffs has protected 
its eggs from the gulls and has saved it from total extermination by 
egg hunters. Its eggs were gathered in large quantities, with the 
eggs of the murres, when it was abundant, but now the eggs of the 
razorbill are too scarce and too hard to get to make it pay to collect 
them. Nuttall (1834) refers to this as follows: 
Its flesh is quite palatable, although very dark, and much eaten by the Green- 
landers, according to Cranz, forming their chief subsistence during the months 
of February and March. These birds are killed with missiles, chased, and 
driven ashore in canoes, or taken in nets nade of split whalebone. Their skins 
are also used for clothing. The eggs are everywhere accounted a delicacy, 
and the feathers of the breast are extremely fine, warm, and elastic. For the 
sake of this handful of feathers, according to Audubon, thousands of these 
birds are killed in Labrador, and their bodies strewed on the shore. 
_Winter—The razor-billed auk is a hardy bird, pushing north 
through the ice in early spring and being driven south again only 
by the advent of cold weather. Late in the fall large numbers are 
seen migrating around Nova Scotia to their winter haunts on the 
New England coasts, following in the wake of the last of the flight 
of scoters and brant. They fly well off shore as a rule and spend 
most of their time on the open sea; consequently they are seldom 
seen and they are probably more abundant than we realize. Long 
Island probably marks about the southern limit of the normal winter 
range of this species, where it is known as the “sea crow.” Dr. 
William C. Braislin (1907) says that they— 
occur on the beach chiefly by reason of their being driven in by winds and surf. 
It is doubtful whether even a few survive this experience. They do not will- 
ingly approach the sands in mild weather and in the fury of a gale, exhausted 
with their struggles and beaten by the surf, they probably nearly all succumb. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Breeding range.—Coasts and islands of the north Atlantic and 
Arctic Oceans. From New Brunswick (Grand Manan), Gulf of St. 
Lawrence (Bird Rock), and Newfoundland, and north along the Lab- 
rador coast to Greenland (west coast to Tasiusak). Also from Ice- 
land, Faroe Islands, and British Isles (south to Channel Islands) ; 
east to coast of Norway and Lapland. Recorded as far north as 
Mallemukfjeldet, northeast Greenland, latitude 81° 12’, but not 
breeding. May possibly have bred in Maine many years ago. 
