AUK. 



67 



at different periods of age ; and if the change of the colour of the 

 head in summer is allowed in both birds, as Fabricius indicates, and 

 which we see too in the Little Auk, it is no wonder that the true 

 state of things should have remained so long in obscurity.* Said to 

 feed on small fish, and in particular on shrimps. 



The Puffin, Razor-billed, and Black-billed Auks, as also the 

 Guillemot, are all seen about Gibraltar in October, and remain there 

 all the winter, departing in March or April ; but in England they 

 are seen only in the summer months. 



7.— CRESTED AUK— Pl. clxx. f. 4. 



Alca cristatella, Ind. Orn. ii. 794. Gm. Lin. i. 552. Pall. Spic. v. p. 18. t. 3. & 5. 



Black Stariki, Hist. Kamtsch. 156. 



Crested Auk, Gen. Syn. v. 323. pl. 95. f. 4. Arct. Zool. ii. No. 434. 



SIZE of the Missel Thrush ; length twelve inches. The bill 

 shaped not unlike that of the Puffin, but the upper mandible more 

 hooked at the tip, and the feathers of the chin produced half way 

 on the under one : at the angle of the mouth a callous flap, the 

 colour, as well as that of the bill crimson, the tip yellow; the head 

 rather small; on the forehead an upright crest of long feathers, which 

 curve forwards, as in the Crested Grakle.f The eyes are small ; beneath 

 them a line of white, and behind a streak, composed of four or five 

 slender, white feathers; head and neck black; back the same, marked 

 with ferruginous brown spots, changing into hoary on the rump; the 

 under parts of a dusky brown ; the wings reach to the base of the tail, 

 which is black, and has fourteen feathers ; the outmost but one 

 ferruginous at the tip ; the exterior marked with indistinct, white 

 dots; legs livid; webs dusky. 



* Consult Faun. Groenl. and Pall. Spic. Fasc. v. p. 1 — 24. See Alca Balthica, Brttn. 

 No. 101. Pall. Spic. v. p. 4. M. Temminck supposes them one and the same, and that 

 the Black-billed is not in full maturity of plumage. f See Vol. iii. p. 164. 



K 2 



