308 
ALCAD^E. 
the sea, tliey invariably dived ; and after making a pretty good 
offing, kept parallel with the coast. As is my practice with 
most sea-fowl, I used to kill them by placing within the throat 
a bit of cotton wool, but like all diving birds they always 
re(|uired a comparatively large quantity. 
In its changes of plumage the Little Auk is as irregular as 
the rest of the Alcadae, and the same rule holds good as to 
the old birds changing first. I have seen them with the black 
feathers in considerable numbers upon the front of the neck 
early in December, and birds in summer plumage by the 4th of 
April, although that state is usually attained a month later at 
least. As late as the end of May I have obtained specimens 
from a distance of about twenty miles north-east of Unst, in 
various states of plumage, some having the front of the neck 
white, others entirely black. I am unacquainted with the 
means of distinguishing the young bird after its first summer, 
believing that after that period it differs in no respect whatever 
from the adult. A note, however, appears in the Zoologist ” 
for 1865, p. 1424, from Mr Blake Knox, recording that he 
killed a bird in its second winter, but without any further 
information. 
From a large series of notes, which may now be condensed 
into very insignificant dimensions, I find the colouring of the 
bare parts to be as follows : — 
Adult, middle of January — bill nearly black ; eye dark 
brown ; tarsi and membranes greyish black, the fronts of the 
former and the upper surface of the toes dusky brownish grey. 
Young, middle of J anuary — differs in having the fronts of 
the legs and toes dingy fiesh colour, darker upon the joints. 
Adults in breeding plumage. May 22 — eye deep brown ; bill, 
tarsi, and feet black. 
