212 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN BIRDS, 



The Auk ( 31 ) for stupidity ever renown'd ; 



And Puffins, and Terns, too, in numbers abound. 



no west, but deposits its eggs, which are, generally, olivaceous 

 brown, on the bare ground, above high-water mark. It is easily 

 tamed when young, and has been known to attend ducks and 

 other poultry to feed and shelter. 



(3 2 ) Order, Anseres, (Linn.) Auk, Razor-Bill, Puffin, 

 Penguin, &c. 



The genus Alca, (Linn.) Auk, consists of more than ten spe- 

 cies; the following are its characteristics ; bill toothless, short; 

 lower mandible gibbous near the base ; nostrils linear; tongue 

 almost as long as the bill ; toes three, forward, webbed, none 

 behind. Its colour is nearly uniform, above black, beneath 

 white ; body shaped like a duck's. It is chiefly an inhabitant 

 of the arctic seas ; very stupid ; builds in rabbit holes and 

 fissures of rocks; lays one egg. The following deserve notice. 



The Pica, or Black-billed Auk, is the shape and size of the 

 Razor-bill, and found on our coasts in the winter season. 



The Torda, Razor-bill, Auk, Common-Auk, or Murre, 

 weighs about twenty-seven ounces; is, in length, eighteen 

 inches. Bill two inches long, from the corner of the mouth, 

 much compressed sideways, three quarters of an inch deep at 

 the largest part, much arched and hooked at the upper end of 

 the mandible; all the upper parts of the bird are a dusky black, 

 beneath white. This bird is not seen in this country in the 

 winter, but repairs to our rocky coasts in the spring, where it 

 lays one very large egg, size or a turkey's, of a dirty white co- 

 lour, blotched with brown and dusky, on the projecting shelves 

 of the highest rocks, where the birds may be seen by hundreds 

 in a row, and where they may be taken up and replaced ; such 

 appears to be their great stupidity. Feeds on small fish, par- 

 ticularly sprats. The eggs of this bird, and of the foolish 

 guillemot, are an article of trade in several of the Scottish 



