260 
LITTLE GUILLEMOT.* 
URIA ALLE. 
[Plate LXXIV.— Fig. 5.] 
Uria alley Temm. Man. d'Om. p. 928 . — Alca alky Lin. Syst. ed. 12 , tom. 1 , p. 211 , 5 . — 
Gmel. Syst. 1 , p. 554 , 5 . — Ind. Orn. p. 795 , 10 . — Uria minoVy Briss, 6 , p. 73 , 2 . — 
Le Petit Guillemot femelky PI. enl. 917 . — Small black and white Diver, Edwards, pL 
91 . — Little Auk, Lath. Gen. Syn. 3 ,/?. 327 . — Penn. Arct. ZooL No. 429 . — Bewick, 
2 , p. 158 . — Peale’s Museum, No. 2978 . 
OF the history of this little stranger but few particulars are 
known. With us it is a very rare bird ; and, when seen, it is gene- 
rally in the vicinity of the sea. The specimen from which the 
figure in the plate was taken, was killed at Great Egg-harbour, in 
the month of December, 1811, and was sent to Wilson as a great 
curiosity. It measured nine inches in length, and fourteen in ex- 
tent; the bill, upper part of the head, back, wings and tail, were 
black ; the upper part of the breast, and hind-head, were gray, or 
white mixed with ash; the sides of the neck, whole lower parts, 
and tips of secondaries were pure white ; feet and legs black, shins 
pale flesh colour ; above each eye there was a small spot of white 
the lower scapulars streaked slightly with the same. 
The Little Guillemot is said to be but a rare visitant of the 
British isles. It is met with in various parts of the north, even as 
far as Spitzbergen ; is common in Greenland, in company with the 
black-billed Auk, and feeds upon the same kind of food. The 
Greenlanders call it the Ice-bird, from the circumstance of its being 
* Named in the plate Little Auk. 
t In Peale’s Museum there is an excellent specimen of this species, which has likewise a 
smaller spot below each eye. 
