The Auks. 
213 
THE 
LITTLE AUK. 
(Alle alle.) 
The small size of the Little Auk is its most distinguishing 
character, as it does not exceed seven-and-a-half-inches in 
length. It is black, with a white breast, and with the flanks 
streaked with black, while the scapulars have white edgings and 
the secondaries white tips. It may probably breed on some of the Hebrides but is 
principally a winter visitor to Great Britain. Its home is in the Arctic Regions 
where it is a common bird, occurring in flocks of many thousands together. Unlike 
other Auks, it is a noisy species, and breeds in cliffs, laying a single egg, which is 
greenish-white without any markings, and measures about two inches in length. 
The Little Auk. 
THE PUFFIN. 
( F rater cula 
ai'tica.) 
This species is often called the 
‘Sea-Parrot’ from its large, but 
not in any way Parrot-like, bill. 
The latter differs, however, re- 
markably from the long thin bill of the Guillemots, 
and is not only very deep and compressed, but in the breeding-season it has grooves 
arranged in a series of plates, and a blue wattle above the eye, all of which are shed 
or moulted in the autumn, just as an ordinary bird moults its feathers. On most of 
the rocky coasts of the United Kingdom the Puffin breeds, even on those of the 
south-west of England, where it is abundant on some of the islands. It is also 
found breeding on the Atlantic coast in North-eastern America, as well as in various 
localities in Western Europe down to the coast of Portugal. Its food consists of 
small fish, and the lancelet is a favourite prey. In some of its northern haunts it 
nests simply in thousands, but, unlike the Guillemot, the single egg is deposited in a 
burrow, or in the cleft of a rock. It is white, with a few spots of pale brown and grey : 
the latter are the underlying markings and are frequently more pronounced than the 
brown ones. The length is from two inches-and-a-quarter to two mches-and-a-half. 
The Puffin. 
