fas 
1883.) . Zoilogy. 798a 
auk is variously called), richer in rooms and halls than any other 
in the wide round world. “ If one climbs up among the stones, he 
sees at intervals actual clouds of fowl suddenly emerge from the 
ground either to swarm round in the air or else to fly out to sea, 
and at the same time those that remain make their presence 
underground known by an increasing cackling and din, resem- 
bling, according to Friedrich Martens, the noise of a crowd of 
quarreling women. Should this sound be stilled for a few mo- 
ments, one need only attempt, in some opening among the stones, 
to imitate their cry (according to Martens: roft-tet-tet-tet-tet) to 
get immediately eager and sustained replies from all sides. The 
fowl circling in the air soon settle again on the stones of the 
mountain slopes, where, squabbling and fighting, they pack them- 
selves so close together that from fifteen to thirty of them may 
be killed by a single shot. A portion of the flock now flies up 
again, others seek their safety, like rats, in concealment among 
the blocks of stone. But they soon creep out again in order, as 
if by agreement, to fly out to sea and search for their food, which 
consists of Crustacea and Vermes. The rotge dives with ease. Its 
single bluish-white egg is laid on the bare ground without a nest, 
so deep down among the stones that it is only with difficulty that 
it can be got at. In the talus of the mountains north of Horn 
. sound, I found on the 18th June, 1858, two eggs of this bird 
_ the winter in their stone mounds, flying out to sea only at pretty 
long intervals in order to collect their food.” 
homol- 
The tail 
