IN AUDUBON'S LABRADOR ' 



fieldmarks in flight. The razor-billed auk lays 

 a single egg on the bare rock at the t)ottom of 

 a crevice or in the space below some fallen 

 fragment. The young are strange-looking ba^ 

 bies, make a peeping noise, climb about actively, 

 and hide in the cracks. 



Black guillemots, or sea-pigeons, were com- 

 mon everywhere along the coast. At Old Ro- 

 maine I had first found their downy young, 

 black as soot and peeping like chickens or 

 making hissing noises. Here they were abun- 

 dant and the old birds fluttered ahead of us 

 over the water like great black-and-white bum- 

 ble-bees. As they dropped into the water with 

 a splash, they elevated their black wings, 

 marked with great white blotches on the out- 

 side, straight up over their backs, and dis- 

 played the equally striking white lining. As 

 they flew by, their brilliant scarlet feet^ were 

 to be seen extended behind. In one group I 

 counted fifty-four birds, and I suspected that 

 they were courting from the excited manner 

 in which they were weaving their ways in 

 and out of the assembly. I have learned that 



• Cartwright mentions the use of the scarlet feet of these 

 birds by the Indians for catching salmon, "in the same man- 

 ner as we do a fly." 



140 



