but this may have been an egg of Procellaria nereis. The
other was deposited just above the tide-mark, in a cavity of
a rock rather open to the air and light. I had found the
bird there one night, had taken her up in my hand, and had
gently replaced her in the hollow, nearly a month before the
egg was laid. The young bird in the egg has the tarsometatarsal
joint short. In the South-African Museum there
is a specimen of P. oceanica from the S.E. coast of Africa,
another from the S. coast of Africa, and two from Table
Bay.”
Nine eggs, brought from Kerguelen by Mr. Eaton, were
described by the Editor (Phil. Trans, clxvii. p. 164) as
averaging 1*3 by *9 in., of a dull white colour, with minute
purple-red spots, which generally form a zone, usually at
the larger end.
The bill is black; the irides dark brown ; the head, neck,
back, wing-primaries, and the tail-feathers, dark brownish-
black ; greater wing-coverts and the secondaries dark rusty- f
brown, lighter in colour near the end, with the extreme
edges and tips white ; upper tail-coverts white ; chin, throat,
breast, and all the underparts sooty-black, except the
feathers near the vent on each outside, which are white;
some of the under tail-coverts are tipped with white, and
the bases of the outer tail-feathers are white; legs long and
slender ; the toes black with an oblong yellow patch upon
each web. Total length of specimen seven inches and a
half; the wing, from the anterior bend to the end of the
longest quill-feather, six inches and one-eighth ; length of
tarsus one inch three-eighths; middle toe and claw one inch
and three-sixteenths.
The Editor’s example from Malaga, obtained on the 7th
August, is renewing its tail-feathers.
PYGOPODES. ALGID AE.
A lca torda, Linnaeus.*
THE RAZOR-BILL.
Alca torda.
Alca, Linnceusf .—Bill straight, large, compressed, very much decurved towards
the point, basal half of both mandibles covered with feathers, grooved
towards the point, the superior mandible hooked, the under one forming with it
a salient angle. Nostrils lateral, marginal, linear, near the middle of the beak,
the aperture almost entirely closed by a membrane covered with feathers. Legs
short, abdominal ; only three toes, all in front, entirely united by membrane ;
claws but slightly curved. Wings short. Tail pointed.
The members of the family of the Auks are oceanic birds
that can swim and dive well, and in this way obtain small
fishes of various sorts, or still smaller Crustacea, as food.
* Alca Torda, Linnteus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 210 (1766). + loc. ext.