104 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



at the mouth of the harbour on several days ; the dives lasted 

 about thirty seconds, but more if the bird was alarmed and 

 moving off. 



Little Geebe. — Seen on the Afon Erch, and two on Afon 

 Wen mere. 



Kazoebill. — On the morning of the 5th, after a heavy raking 

 sea all night, the shore was strewn with seaweed, a vast lot being 

 thrown up, including a lot of thin grassy stuff. The people were 

 out getting driftwood, and I found a two-year-old Eazorbill, 

 quite fresh, but little more than skin and bones ; the inside of 

 the mouth was buff or yellow-buff. The dried remains of another 

 Were flung on to the road by the gale. 



Guillemot. — Four in winter dress off the harbour mouth on 

 the 1st ; cold N.N.W. wind, some snow, and stormy. I have 

 never in this district heard the Guillemot called *' Eligoog " 

 (Heligog), a name possibly confined to South Wales. " Salt- 

 water Cuckoo " seems a most appropriate name; descriptive of 

 the habits of a bird which, by the regularity of its appearance in 

 vast numbers at sea-washed rocks in the spring, so forces itself 

 upon the notice of those who dwell in the neighbourhood of 

 great breeding-haunts of sea-fowl. These Auks appeal to the 

 eye as harbingers of spring, just as the Cuckoo appeals to the 

 ear in the same manner. For the name has probably never 

 been the exclusive property of the Guillemot, but was shared by 

 the Puffin and the Eazorbill. Ray, treating of the birds of 

 Caldey Island in 1662, says, in one of his Itineraries, that 

 Razorbills are called " Elegugs," and writes : — " This name 

 Elegug some attribute to the Puffin, and some to the Guillem ; 

 indeed, they know not themselves what they mean by this 

 name." They doubtless meant all three species, all being emi- 

 nently migratory, although we know so little about the extent of 

 their migration, whether it extends far or not. Perhaps they 

 are so spread and scattered over the seas in winter that there are 

 never many together. On the other hand, numbers together are 

 sometimes thrown on the shores dead after stormy weather. Yet 

 the fact remains that those who go down to the sea in ships do 

 not seem to meet with Auks in the vast numbers we should 

 expect them to be after a successful breeding season. By the 

 end of winter their ranks are evidently thinned ; otherwise the 

 breeding stations would become hopelessly congested. 



