LITTLE AUK. 
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confluent, and form a very big patch. Varieties also occur in 
which the ground-colour is of a faint lilac, with blotches of 
brown and grey of about equal size occurring all over the egg. 
Axis, 2'i-2'55 inches; diam., i'55-i7. 
the rotches, or little auks, genus alle. 
Alle, Link. Beschr. Nat. Samml. Univ. Rostock, i. p. 17 (1806). 
Type A. alle (Linn.). 
The Little Auks are of diminutive size, with a small swollen 
bill without any sulcations or ridges; the culmen is rounded, 
the length from the gape to the tip of the bill being less than 
the middle toe and claw, and there is no notch near the end 
of the upper mandible. The nostrils are ovate and exposed, 
the frontal plumes not impinging upon the nasal apertures. 
The line of the tomia, or cutting edge of the bill, is 
decurved. 
I. THE LITTLE AUK. ALLE ALLE. 
Aka alle, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 21 1 (1766); Seebohm, Hist. 
Brit. B. iii. p. 3S0 (1885). 
Mergulus alle, Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 340 (1852); Dresser, B. 
Eur. viii. p. 591, pi. 624 (1877) ; B. O. U. List Brit. B. 
p. 208 (1883); Saunders, ed. Yarrell’s Brit. B. iv. p. 85 
(1884); id. Man. Brit. B. p. 689 (1889); Lilford, Col. 
Fig. Brit. B. part xxiii. (1893). 
(Piale CIX.) 
Adult. — General colour above black, varied on the scapulars 
with a few white streaks, these feathers being edged with 
white ; wings and tail black, the secondaries tipped with white ; 
sides of head and throat and fore-neck sooty black ; remain- 
der of under surface from the chest downwards pure 
white ; the flanks streaked with black, the feathers being 
internally black, externally white; under wing-coverts and 
axillaries blackish ; the greater coverts and the lower primary- 
coverts tipped with white ; quills ashy below ; bill leaden 
black ; feet and toes livid brown, the webs darker ; iris hazel. 
Total length, 7‘5 inches; culmen, o'65 ; wing, 4-65 ; tail, i'3; 
tarsus, 07. 
