44:4 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



the 12th of June 1881, as well as a third captured in Notting- 

 hamshire on the 8th of the same month. 1 In 1860 a fourth 

 adult was shot in June on the Kingsbridge estuary, S. Devon. 2 



Order PYGOPODES. Fam. ALGIDJE, 



RAZORBILL. 



Alca torda, L. 



A nice colony of Razorbills, which has probably existed from 

 time immemorial, holds possession of a number of ledges on the 

 red sand-stone cliffs at St. Bees. As compared with the vast 

 gatherings of birds, which one is accustomed to visit on the 

 great headlands of the north of Scotland, the St. Bees colony 

 is small of course ; a considerable number of pairs nest there, 

 nevertheless, and very handsome they look as they sit sedately 

 on their eggs, or come hurrying past the boat, the white eye- 

 streak relieving the sombreness of their otherwise uniformly 

 black upper surface. They are not so numerous as the Guille- 

 mots, and appear to succumb to the hardships of winter in a 

 greater proportion to their numbers than the latter species. 

 Nor does the Razorbill occur in the interior of the country with 

 the same frequency as Uria troile. A loose scrap in T. C. 

 Heysham's handwriting runs thus: * Razorbill, Jan. 21, 1849. 

 A specimen was found alive in Mr. Mounsey's plantation at 

 Rockliffe this day. It lived until the 27th.' Similar occur- 

 rences have come under my observation in different years, but 

 chiefly at a short distance from the sea-board. 



COMMON GUILLEMOT. 



Uria troile (L.). 



Pennant tells us that, in his day, St. Bees Head was ' noted 

 for the great resort of birds,' referring doubtless to the Guille- 

 mots, which, in company with a lesser number of Razorbills, 

 rear their young on the cliffs at Sandwith. If you walk along 

 the top of the cliffs from Fleswick Bay on a summer day, you 

 1 Zoologist, 1881, p. 469. 2 Zoologist, I860, p. 7106. 



