40 



BLACK-BILLED AUK. 



It lays four or five eggs, thickly covered with pale ferruginous brown 

 spots, mostly at the larger end; these are hatched after about fourteen 

 days' incubation. In confinement this species will readily eat crumbs of 

 bread, and flesh either raw or otherwise. 



BLACK-BILLED AUK (Alca pica, Linn^us.) 



*Alca pica Linn. Syst. 1. p. 210. 2. — Gmel. Syn. 2. p. 551. — Mergus Bellonii, 

 Utamania, Raii, Syn. p. 119. 2.— Will.?. 243. t. 64.— Ib. (Angl.) p. 324.— Le 

 petit pengoin, Buff. 9. p. 396.— Black-billed Auk, Br. Zool.2. No. 231.— Ib. fol. 



137.— Arct. Zool. 2. No. 426.— Lath. Syn. 5. p. 320. 6 Alca torda, Ind. 



Orn. 2. 793, 5— Alca minor, Briss. 6. p. 923. t. 8. ft 2.— .16. 8vo. 2. p. 383— 

 Walch. Syn. l.t. 85. 



The Razor-bill in the winter plumage of the first year. Colonel 

 Montagu has assigned several plausible reasons for supposing it a 

 distinct species; but the subsequent observations of Dr. Fleming, Tem- 

 minck, and other naturalists, prove that he was mistaken ; yet as 

 this was a subject to which he had directed a great deal of attention, it 

 may be proper to give his reasons for the opinion.* 



The weight of this bird is about eighteen ounces ; length fifteen 

 inches ; bill black ; of the shape and size of the razor-bill : smooth, or 

 void of furrows in some, while others possess three distinct furrows, as 

 in a specimen now before us : that nearest the base white ; irides hazel ; 

 the top of the head, taking in the eyes, part of the neck, back, wings, 

 and tail, are black ; the lesser quills tipped with white : side of the 

 head, fore-part of the neck, and all the under parts of the body white ; 

 legs brown black. 



Dr. Latham, and after him several other naturalists, suspect this is 

 only the young of the razor-bill unmatured. We cannot, however, 

 agree in opinion with that excellent ornithologist. By late observations 

 on the young of the razor-bill, both before and after they could fly, 

 we find that they only differ from the parent bird in having no furrows 

 in the bill, being destitute of the white line from the bill to the eye, 

 and having no white on the secondary feathers, while the whole head 

 and upper part of the neck are black, which is the essential difference 

 between that bird and the Black-billed Auk. 



This species is only found on our coasts in winter ; the razor-bill 

 breeds with us, and retires in the autumn, before which time none are 

 to be found on our cliffs with the white cheeks and throat of the 

 Black-billed Awk. It is hardly possible, then, to conceive that the 

 young, who are in their first feathers so like the old ones, should be- 

 come more unlike them in winter, which is contrary to the laws of 

 nature ; for observation has taught us, that all birds become more like 

 their parents at every moulting : so that to make these birds one and 



