LITTLE AUK. 
465 
NA TA TORES. 
A LCA DjE. 
LITTLE AUK. 
Auctica alle. 
PLATE GXXVII. PIG. I. 
Although periodically driven upon our shores, and 
sometimes in considerable numbers during the months 
of winter, this beautiful little bird has its home much 
farther north. It is abundant on some parts of the 
shores of Greenland, where it breeds, and whence both 
the birds and eggs have been brought to this country 
by the sailors employed in the Greenland fishery. 
Mr. Proctor, who met with this species in Iceland, 
says, that it is very local, and confined to the Island of 
Grimsey, which lies to the north of the mainland, and 
forty or fifty miles distant from it; that it makes no 
nest, but deposits its single egg upon the bare ground, 
amongst and under the large stones which have fallen 
from the cliffs above. The birds would allow him to 
turn over the stones and take them off their eggs; he 
found from twelve to fourteen of the eggs on the 2nd of 
July, then far advanced in incubation. Most of these 
eggs are slightly spotted with rust colour, but few so 
distinctly as the plate. They vary very much in size, 
and are sometimes not more than half the capacity of 
the one figured. 
H H 2 
