BRITISH BIRDS. 
I 
167 
BLACK-BILLED AUK. 
( Alca Pka^ Lin , — Le Petit Pingoin^ Buff. ) 
Latham fays, This weighs eighteen ounces : 
is in length fifteen inches: breadth twenty-four. 
The bill is not above half the breadth of the Ra- 
zor-bill’s, and very little curved, perfectly fmooth 
throughout the whole of its furface, except a flight 
indentation at the bafe : infide of the mouth of a 
pale flefli-colour : the top of the head, taking in 
the eyes, part of the neck, the back, wings, and 
tail, are black ; on the fides of the neck the black 
comes forward fo as almoft to meet on the fore part : 
the fides of the head, throat, fore part of the neck, 
and all beneath, white : from behind the eye a 
dufky black mark tends to the hinder part of the 
head, as in the Lefler Guillemot j the white on the 
fides of the head is lefs pure than that on the under 
parts ; all the fecondary quills are tipped with white ; 
and the primaries are of a deeper black than the 
others : legs brownifli black.” Linnaeus fays the legs 
are red, but no other author records it. Latham fur- 
ther obferves, This, from its external marks, 
fhould appear to be a different fpecies from the Ra- 
zor-bill, but we are pretry certain it is no other than 
the young of that bird.” 
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