DOVEKIE. 
405 
touches of blackish. At this time, probably, they are heard to 
utter their uncouth and monotonou.s call of rottet, by which as 
a name they are known to the Dutch navigators who have 
penetrated to their dreary and remote haunts. 
Captain Ross’s party met with these birds in great numbers 
on the west coast of Greenland, where they were shot daily, 
and sujrplied to the ship’s company, who found them very 
palatable, and free from any fishy taste, though their food con- 
sists chiefly of a small species of crab (^Cancer), with which 
the Arctic seas abound. 
This interesting little wanderer, that comes to our shores only 
during the winter months, and gains our sympathy by its graceful 
form and apparent helplessness, is a much more sturdy and self- 
reliant bird than it gives any evidence of as we pick it up ex- 
hausted from battling with the strong north wind that has thrown 
it in our way, faint from hunger and wearied from the protracted 
struggle. Its wings are small, but they are moved almost as 
rapidly as a Humming Bird’s, and propel the bird through the air 
with great rapidity. This bird is an expert diver too, and though 
aw'kward on the land, swims with easy grace; and when wearied, 
it tucks its head beneath its little wing, and rocked in the cradle of 
the deep, sleeps as calmly and serenely as do human children upon 
their mother’s breast. When hungry, these little children of the 
sea draw their food from the ocean’s bosom. 
The Little Auk nests only north of the Arctic Circle, and there 
assembles in vast communities, and fills the air with its wild note, 
which bears some resemblance to the syllables al-le. 
These birds are seen on our shores only in winter, and then 
straggle as far south as New Jersey. Occasionally an example is 
blown inland by a gale, one having been found as far away from 
the sea as the Detroit River. 
