THE RAZORBILL. 
235 
this bird, the “ sea-parrot ” of our own coast,) — where it breeds in 
myriads, has exceeded those of ornithologists on this side of 
the Atlantic. 
THE BAZOEBILL * 
Ale a torda , Linn. 
Black-billed Auk. 1 Young, and old in 
Alca pica, Linn. J winter plumage. 
Visits annually, for nidification, lofty cliffs around 
the coast. 
This species and the common guillemot are found so much to- 
gether in their breeding-haunts, that what has been said of those 
of the latter bird will be found almost equally applicable to the 
razorbill. It breeds at the Gobbins, but in greatly diminished 
numbers of late years, owing to persecution. About a hundred 
pair were seen by an ornithologist here one day in June 1847, 
and many more were doubtless out at sea. They kept in flocks 
on the cliffs (where twelve were killed at one shot) as well as on 
the water. They proceed in bodies from the rocks to the sea 
every morning, but not at an early hour. Though generally ar- 
riving in April, they do not breed before the end of May ; — in the 
late season of 1849, they had not commenced laying on the 2nd 
of June, upon which day the rocks were examined for their eggs. 
In that month of 1842, I observed some of these birds at 
Carrick-a-rede, in the north of the county Antrim. Dr. J. D. 
Marshall informs us that at the end of June 1834, “this auk 
was found associated with the foolish guillemot in countless num- 
bers on the northern shores of Bathlin. It was, however, much 
more plentiful than the guillemot, but so much resembling it in 
general appearance, that, by the boatmen, they were invariably 
confounded, and, while sitting on the rocks, regarded as belonging 
* Called puffin at the Gobbins (co. Antrim), &c., where the bird properly so called 
bears the name of Ailsa-cock. 
