303 
POPULAR HISTORY OP BIRDS. 
Islands^ where they breed in great numbers, he has chased 
the young ones, when they become so fatigued as to be 
easily caught. When one of them is taken into the boat 
the parent bird approaches within a few feet, dives under 
and around the boat in all directions, and whenever it 
comes up to the surface utters a peculiarly melancholy note, 
at the same time turning its head in a listening attitude, 
as if expecting to hear an answer from the prisoner. The 
anxiety of the mother has always the desired effect ; and it 
is pleasing to observe the joy with which she swims away 
with her recovered young one, nestling it under her wing, 
and never permitting it to stray a foot from her.^^ 
The whaler and the Arctic voyager are often amused by 
the lively gambols of a small bird (a member of this group), 
quite at home in the northern seas. It is called the Rotche, 
Rotge, or Little Auk [Arctica alle). Sir Edward Parry, 
in north latitude 83|^, when trying to reach the North 
Pole by the ice to the north of Spitzbergen, on the 24ith 
July, 1827, records, "The only notice of animal life occur- 
ing in our journals, in the course of this day^s trayelling, 
consists in our having heard a rotge"^."*^ In the same seas, 
in August, he met with large flocks of these birds feeding 
* Narrative, etc., p. 101. 
