RAZOR-BILLED AUK. 
413 
Besides breeding in Labrador, Mr. Audubon found that the 
Razor-bill occasionally nested in the Island of (^rand Menan, 
the Seal Islands, and others situated at the entrance of the 
Bay of Lundy. . . . , -i-.i , 
Though it walks and runs awkwardly, this bird moves swif y, 
and can easily escape from place to place. 
old bird, like that of the Puffin, is very severe he fishermen 
of this region call this species the Hawk-billed Murre. 
flesh is quite palatable, although very dark, and much eaten 
by the Greenlanders, according to Crantz, forming t 
subsistence during the months of February and March. Ihese 
birds are killed with missiles, chased and driven ashore m 
canoes, or taken in nets made of split whalebone. Iheir skins 
are also used for clothing. The eggs are everywhere accounted 
a delicacy, and the feathers of the breast are extremely fine, 
warm, and elastic. For the sake of this handful of feathers, 
according to Audubon, thousands of these birds are killed in 
Labrador, and their bodies strewed on the shore. 
'Fhe islands between the small port of Little Macatme and 
Brador abound with these and other allied marine birds, whose 
eggs are collected by the inhabitants of Nova Scotia. F or this 
purpose they commence by trampling on all they find laid, and 
the following day begin to collect those which are newly dropped ; 
and such is the abundance of the eggs that Mr. Audubon fell in 
with a partv of three men who, in the course of six weeks, had 
collected thirty thousand dozen, of the estimated value of four 
hundred pounds sterling. Beyond Brador the Murres and 
Puffins were no longer found. 
The Razor-bill breeds on the Atlantic coast from the Bay of 
Fundv to the northern part of Labrador, though very few exam- 
ples are found in summer south of the Gulf of St Lawrence. n 
winter these birds wander along the coast of New England and the 
adjacent Provinces. 
