250 THE RAZOR-BILLED AUK. 



covered with down, had a lisping note, but fed freely on shrimps and small 

 bits of fish, the food with which their parents supply them. They were 

 very friendly towards each other, differing greatly in this respect from the 

 young Puffins, which were continually quarrelling. They stood almost 

 upright. Whenever a finger was placed within their reach, they instantly 

 seized it, and already evinced the desire to bite severely so cordially 

 manifested by the old birds of this species, which in fact will hang to your 

 hand until choked rather than let go their hold. The latter when wounded 

 threw themselves on their back, in the manner of Hawks, and scratched 

 fiercely with their claws. They walked and ran on the rocks with con- 

 siderable ease and celerity, taking to wing, however, as soon as possible. 

 When thus disturbed while breeding, they fly round the spot many times 

 before they alight again. Sometimes a whole flock will alight on the water 

 at some distance, to watch your departure, before they will venture to 

 return. 



This bird lays one or two eggs, according to the nature of the place. 

 The eggs measure at an average three inches and one-eighth, by two and 

 one-eighth, and are generally pure white, greatly blotched with dark reddish- 

 brown or black, the spots generally forming a circle towards the larger end. 

 They differ considerably from those of the Common and the Thick-billed 

 Guillemots, being less blunted at the smaller end. The eggs afford excellent 

 eating; the yolk is of a pale orange colour, the white pale blue. The Eggers 

 collect but few of the eggs of this bird, they being more difficult to be 

 obtained than those of the Guillemot, of which they take vast numbers every 

 season. 



The food of the Razor-billed Auk consists of shrimps, various other 

 marine animals, and small fishes, as well as roe. Their flesh is by the fishers 

 considered good, and I found it tolerable, when well stewed, although it is 

 dark and therefore not prepossessing. The birds are two years in acquiring 

 the full size and form of their bill, and, when full grown, they weighed 

 about a pound and a half. The stomach is an oblong sac, the lower part of 

 which is rather muscular, and answers the purpose of a gizzard. In many I 

 found scales, remnants of fish, and pieces of shells. The intestines were 

 upwards of three feet in length. 



Immediate^ after the breeding season, these birds drop their quills, and 

 are quite unable to fly until the beginning of October, when they all leave 

 their breeding-grounds for the sea, and move southward. The young at this 

 period scarcely shew the white streak between the bill and the eye; their 

 cheeks, like those of the old birds at this time, and the fore part of the neck, 

 are dingy white, and remain so until the following spring, when the only 

 diflcrence between the vouns and the old is, that the former have the bill 



