BRITISH BIRDS. 
163 
fliort, fdft, gloffy black feathers, excepting a white 
ftroke acrofs * the wings, formed by the tips of the 
lelfer quills : the whole under fide of the body is 
white : the wings are very ihort, not exceeding four 
inches and a quarter, froin the tips of the longeft 
quill feathers to the firft joint : legs black, fhort, 
and placed near the vent. 
From the inability of thefe birds to fly or walk, 
they are feldom feen out of the water, and it is re- 
marked by feamen, that they never wander beyond 
foundings. The female lays only one egg, which 
{he depofits and hatches on a ledge clofe to the fea- 
mark : it is of a very large fize, being about fix 
inches in length, of a white colour, ftreaked with 
lines of a purple cafl, and blotched with dark rufty 
fpots at the thicker end. 
This fpecies is not numerous any where : it in- 
habits Norway, Iceland, the Ferro Ifles, Greenland, 
and other cold regions of the north, but is feldom 
feen on the Britifli fliores. 
The Gair-fowl defcribed by Martin, in his voyage 
to St Kilda, and account of that ifland, publiflied 
in 1698, differs in fome particulars from the fore- 
going : he fays, it is larger than the Solan Goofe, 
black, red about the eyes, has a large white fpot 
under each eye, a long broad bill ; ftands ered, 
has fhort wings, cannot fly ; lays one egg, twice 
the fize of that of the Solan Goofe, varioufly fpeck- 
led with black, green, and dufky fpots.’^ 
