THE RAZORBILL. 
237 
we saw numbers of these birds, both on the water and on 
wing ; — dying just above the surface, and in single file, when a few 
only were together. They were chiefly in little parties of from two 
to seven • but one flock of about thirty birds appeared, two-thirds 
of which only proceeded in a single line. Such are their usual 
modes of flight, according to numbers. *We were interested by 
observing a young bird of the year (the only one seen) in 
company with its parent, with which it kept pace in swimming 
and diving, though only half adult size. They admitted the ap- 
proach of our boat within from twenty-five to forty yards before 
diving or taking wing. Birds thus frequenting the open sea may 
have their nests at the Gobbins, Ailsa, or other places to which 
they have a direct flight above the water, but during the breeding 
season some may also be observed in land-locked localities, such as 
Strangford Lough, &c. We saw but one common guillemot to- 
day, which was on wing in company with a razorbill. Just after 
the breeding season in 1831, birds of this species were very 
plentiful, and appeared as far up the estuary as within three miles 
of the town ; — many were shot ; a number killed with oars ; and 
some run down by boating parties, and captured with the hand. 
Lour specimens, shot here on the 28th of September, were found 
to contain only the remains of fish. 
The head of an adult razorbill, shot in the month of June 
1838, at the extremity of Lough Derg, near Portumna, was sent 
to me, as that of a bird quite unknown to the people there. It 
was, indeed, the first instance known to myself of the occurrence 
of the species on fresh-water, in Ireland. This specimen was said 
to have exhibited no appearance of having previously been wounded. 
Montagu, writing from Devonshire, remarks that "the razor- 
bill is not seen with us in winter/” and Selby observes, with re- 
gard to the birds bred in Great Britain, that “ in winter their 
place is supplied in Scotland, and sparingly also along the Eng- 
lish coast, from the colonies that breed in higher latitudes” 
(p. 436). Audubon gives a good personal narrative of his visits 
to the razorbill's breeding-haunts on the coast of North America 
(vol. iii. p. 112). 
