THE RAZOR-BILLED AUK. 
133 
covered with down, had a lisping note, but fed freely on shrimps and small 
bits of fish, the food with which their parents supply them. They were 
very friendly towards each other, differing greatly in this respect from the 
young Puffins, which were continually quarrelling. They stood almost 
upright. Whenever a finger was placed within their reach, they instantly 
seized it, and already evinced the desire to bite severely so cordially 
manifested by the old birds of this species, which in fact will hang to your 
hand until choked rather than let go their hold. The latter when wounded 
threw themselves on their back, in the manner of Hawks, and scratched 
fiercely with their claws. They walked and ran on the rocks with con- 
siderable ease and celerity, taking to wing, however, as soon as possible. 
When thus disturbed while breeding, they fly round the spot many times 
before they alight again. Sometimes a whole flock will alight on the water 
at some distance, to watch your departure, before they will venture to 
return. 
This bird lays one or two -eggs, according to the nature of the place. 
The eggs measure at an average three inches and one-eighth, by two and 
one-eighth, and are generally pure white greatly blotched with dark reddish- 
brown or black, the spots generally forming a circle towards the larger end. 
They differ considerably from those of the Common and the Thick-billed 
Guillemots, being less blunted at the smaller end. The eggs afford excellent 
eating ; the yolk is of a pale orange colour, the white pale blue. The eggers 
collect but few of the eggs of this bird, they being more difficult to be 
obtained than those of the Guillemot, of which they take vast numbers every 
season. 
The food of the Razor-billed Auk consists of shrimps, various other 
marine animals, and small fishes, as well as roe. Their flesh is by the fishers 
considered good, and I found it tolerable, when well stewed, although it is 
dark and therefore not prepossessing. The birds are two years in acquiring 
the full size and form of their bill, and, when full grown, they weighed 
about a pound and a half. The stomach is an oblong sac, the lower part of 
which is rather muscular, and answers the purpose of a gizzard. In many I 
found scales, remnants of fish, and pieces of shells. The intestines were 
upwards of three feet in length. 
Immediately after the breeding season, these birds drop their quills, and 
are quite unable to fly until the beginning of October, when they all leave 
their breeding-grounds for the sea, and move southward. The young at this 
period scarcely show the white streak between the bill and the eye ; their 
cheeks, like those of the old birds at this time, and the fore part of the neck, 
are dingy white, and remain so until the following spring, when the only 
difference between the young and the old is, that the former have the bill 
