MURRE. 
399 
favorite cliffs, is another singular and common inhabitant of 
the high northern latitudes of both continents. In Europe 
these birds extend their swarming colonies as far as the ever 
wintry coast of Spitzbergen ; they are also seen in Lapmarck, 
and along the White and Icy Sea as far as Kamtschatka. Along 
the whole coast of Hudson Bay, Labrador, and Newfoundland, 
they congregate in swarms. They also breed in the Orkneys 
and in more temperate climates, when the local situation hap- 
pens to suit their particular habits and instinct ; thus, they are 
extremely numerous in the desert Isle of Priestholm, contiguous 
to tlie Island of .•\nglesey, on the Godreve rocks, not far from 
St. Ives, in Cornwall, the Fame Isles, off the coast of Northum- 
berland, and the cliffs of the Isle of Wight, and of Scarborough 
in Yorkshire. Occasionally the young are seen along the 
coasts of the United States ; but the great body of the species 
in America, according to Audubon, winter in the Bay of Fundy, 
where they find an open sea, congenial rocks, and a cool 
temperature. 
These birds begin to assemble on their customary cliffs in 
England early in May, and crowd together in such numbers that 
it is not uncommon to see hundreds sitting upon their eggs on 
the ledge of a rock, all in a line, and nearly touching each 
other, d’hey lay but a single egg, on the flat and bare rock, 
without any precaution to protect it or the progeny arising 
from it by any shelter or convenience at all like a nest. It is 
of a palish green, blotched and marked with black and deep 
umber brown. They rarely quit their eggs unless disturbed, 
and are fed during the time, chiefly with small fish or other 
marine productions, by the male. In inaccessible places, or 
where seldom disturbed, it is with difficulty that they are roused 
to flight, and may then sometimes be taken by the hand ; 
others flutter into the water below the cliffs on which they 
nestle, and seem, in fact, to try every expedient but that of 
flight. They are at all times extremely expert in diving, using 
their pinions as oars instead of the feet, thus flying as it were 
in the water, as well as in the air. After the young are hatched 
and capable of migrating, by the close of August, they all dis- 
