519 RAZORBILL. Class II. 



cept the tips of the lefTer quil-feathers, which arc 

 white: the tail confifts of twelve black feathers, 

 and is fharp pointed : the whole under fide of the 

 body is white : the legs black. 

 Place, Thefe birds, in company with the Guillemot, 



appear in our feas the beginning of February ; but 

 do not fettle on their breeding places till they be- 

 gin to lay, about the beginning of May. They 

 inhabit the ledges of the higheft rocks that im- 

 pend over the fea, where they form a grotefque 

 appearance ; fitting clofe together, and in rows one 

 above the other. They properly lay but one egg 

 a piece, of an extraordinary fize for the bulk of 

 the bird, being three inches long : it is either white, 

 or of a pale fea green, irregularly fpotted with 

 black : if this egg is deftroyed, both the auk and 

 guillemot will lay another •, if that is taken, then 

 a third : they make no neft, depofiting their egg 

 on the bare rock : and though fuch multitudes lay 

 contiguous, by a wonderful inftinct each diftin- 

 guifhes its own. What is aifo matter of great amaze- 

 ment, they fix their egg on the fmooth rock, with 

 (o exact a balance, as to fecure it from rolling off; 

 yet mould it be removed, and then attempted to be 

 replaced by the human hand, it is extremely diffi- 

 cult, if not impofiible to find its former equili- 

 brium. 



The esgs are food to the inhabitants of the coafts 

 they frequent * which they get with great hazard ; 

 being lowered from above by ropes, trufting to 



the 



