J&oalcL bSClhchter, deb et/ Udì/.
MERGUIUS AULE.
Khlterlinp.
MERGULUS ALLE.
Little Auk.
Alca alle, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 50.
Uria alle, Tetnm. Man. d’Orn., 1815, p. 611.
Mergultu melanoleucos, Leach, Syst. Cat. of Indig. Mamm. and Biniti in Bri; M p . 42.
Alca candida, Brünn. Om Bor., p. 25.
Mergi’ìus alle, Vieill. Gal. des Ois., tom. ii. p. 237, pi. 295.
arcticus, Brehm, Vög. Deutschi., p. 994.
Arctica alle, G. R. Gray, ListofGen. of Birds, 1841, p. 98.
In the British Islands, the Little Auk mostly occurs during the seasons o f autumn and winter, while its
principal summer haunts are Spitsbergen, Iceland, Greenland, Baffin’s Bay, and Davis’s Straits. As far as
our intrepid voyagers ba»e proceeded, even to the eighty-first degree o f north latitude, numbers beyond
computation were observe»! eimvenwig the scene with their presence. “ So numerous were they,’’ »an Captain
Beechey, “ that we have •>«■«'.!.■ an uninterrupted line extending full halfway over Magdalen Buv, or to a
distance of more than «»lex This column, on the average, might have been about six vards broad
and as many deep. There «Wwt hate l»eeii nearly four millions of birds on the wing at one time.” “ The
incredible numbers « Í thttm s p e c ie s s a y s Meyer, “ that have been seen by voyagers on the surface of the
northern seas are m y svfiiwrkafete: it is said that they cover the surface o f the water aftd the floating
masses o f ice as far /«■» >in- eye can discern, and, when' they take flight, actually darken the sky. This species
is so entirely a sea-bird that it is only seen on land or in the immediate vicinity o f the coast during the
breeding-season, aj|wd at other times hardly ever within fifteen or twenty miles from the shore.”
Col. Sabine, in his • Memoir on the Birds o f Greenland,’ observes that “ the Little Auk was abundant in
Baffin’s Bay and Davis’s Straits, and in latitude 76° was so numerous in the channels o f water separating
fields o f ice, that many hundreds were killed daily, and the ship’s company supplied with them.”
“ This pretty little bird,” says Mr. Alfred Newton in his ‘ Notes on the Birds o f Spitsbergen,’ “ is
numerous almost beyond belief on the greater part o f the coast. Parrv’s Expedition met with it as far to
the north as the party travelled, and in August found it in great numbers between lat. 81° and 82° N. Its
breeding-places, though at a less height than those of its allies, are still far from being easily accessible; hut
I found one to within a few feet o f which I could climb and superintend the capture of the young. Mr.
Laimmt, in his entertaining work ‘ Seasons with the Sea-horses,’ states his opinion that it is the matings of
this bird which produce the well-known ‘ red snow.’ I do not at all agree to th is; for, setting aside that
the cause o f that singular appearance has been fully determined, and that it occurs in regions where there
áre no birds o f ¡¿he kind, the matings o f the Roche or Little Auk are like anchovy-paste, while the red
snow, or such o f it as I saw, 'is o f an entirely different colour, being a dull crimson.”— Ibis, 1865, p. 521.
The snow* author states, in his note to Sabine Baring Gould’s ‘ Iceland, its Scenes and Sagas,’ that
according to Fubiw it occurs in that country all the year round, but only breeds on Grimsey, where Faber found
it in 1820, and Proctor in 1837. This is probably one o f the most southern o f its brecding-quarters; for
although it has been s&kl to breed at St. Abb’s Head and other parts o f Scotland, I believe we have no reliable
evidence o f the tj«. i p e r i o d i c a l l y driven upon our shores,” says Mr. Hewitson, “ and sometimes
in considerable « ambers <j*mng the winter months, this beautiful little bird has its home much further north.
It is abundant o» some part o f the shores o f Greeshwd, where it breeds-, and whence both the birds and eggs
have been brougit tn thw it&mtry by the sailors employed in the Greenfauid fishery. Mr. Proctor, who met
with it in Iceland , says that k ■?-. very local there, and makes no ne'Si, hot deposits its single egg upon the bare
ground, amongst and under the forge stones which have fallen from the cliffs above. The birds allowed him
to turn over the stones and take them off their e g g s ; he found twelve or fourteen eggs on the 2nd o f July,
far advanced in incubation. Most of these were slightly spotted with nm-eolour, but only a few o f them
very distinctly.” In ‘ M'Clintock’s Vovagc ’ it is stated that the " Rotebe or Little Auk, lays its single egg
upon the bare rock far within the crevices, and beyond the reach of Fox, Owl, or Burgomaster Gull.”
The egg figured by Mr. Hewitson measures one inch and seven-eighths in length, by one inch and three-
eighths in bread jb, and is o f a pale bluish white, with a few speckles o f rusty yellow principally at the larger
end. The egg is very large for the size o f the bird—so large, in fact, that it would seem impossible that it
should be laid by so tiny a creature; for it fully equals that of a Bantam, a bird nearly six times the weight
o f the Little Ault.
The above «."count forms the pith of the information that has been recorded respecting the bird in its