30G 
ALCAD^E. 
THE LITTLE AUK. 
Merguliis mclanolcucos. 
FvOTCHIE. 
A whole winter will sometimes pass without so much as one 
of these interesting little birds making its appearance, and for 
some time I was unable to get a satisfactory explanation of 
the apparent irregularity. At last, one day in January, a 
fisherman brought me a Eotchie which he had knocked down 
with the boat’s tiller a few miles out at sea, assuring me that 
there were plenty about the coast, and that a few miles out 
they were quite abundant. It then became apparent that the 
case of the little Auk was almost precisely similar to that of 
the Guillemot ; that is, that it remained near the coast during 
a certain portion at least of the winter, that the few birds 
which now and then visited the bays and inlets were mere 
stragglers, usually appearing in fair weather only, and that 
the numbers which were occasionally drifted ashore dead, or 
into sheltered bays in a living state, had been unable to with- 
stand the force of the gale outside. I have now held this 
view for some years, and am glad at last to find an advocate of 
the same in Mr Gray.* 
These birds are far more ready to make use of their wings 
than are the Guillemots and Eazor-bills ; therefore, bearing in 
mind that the storm-driven birds seldom occur in the daytime^ 
we may reasonably conclude that the darkness is the main 
cause of their misfortunes. Sometimes they are found in 
ditches alive and strong, sometimes upon the highest hills, and 
by no means unfrequently in cottage yards, whither they have 
no doubt been attracted by the light from the windows. They 
are well known to most of the inhabitants, who look upon 
their appearance as nothing unusual; but in the Korth Isles at 
least I have not heard of their having been seen in large 
numbers. The report that large fiocks arrived regularly every 
* “ Birds of "West of Scotland,” jiage 432. 
