A young bird about a week old, obtained from the rocks
at the Isle of Wiglit, has the beak smooth and black, no
white line to the eye, but the chin and throat are white, with
a few greyisli-black hairs about the middle of the neck in
front; the head and hind neck black, with a few white hairs ;
body above and the wings dull sooty-black.
Mr. Cordeaux informs the Editor that in a variety shot at
Flamborough on the 30th January, 1875, nowin the collection
of Mr. J. H. Gurney, the bill, legs, and feet were bright
yellow, the plumage being that of the ordinary winter dress,
excepting that the dark portions of the head and neck were
somewhat paler than in normal examples. In May, 1878,
when off Rye in a yacht, he saw one of a pair which had the
nape, neck, upper part of back, and wing-coverts of a very
light brown, giving the bird a singularly piebald appearance.
Mr. George Maclachlan, for some years lighthouse-
keeper at Barra Head, and one of our most careful observers,
states that he has seen a small proportion of Razor-bills and
Guillemots with light-brown backs, and he is of opinion
that this colour is hereditary (Pr. N. H. Soc. Glasgow,
iv. p. 281.
Saxby records (B. of Shetland, p. 314) an adult female
shot on the 17tli December which had no white line between
the base of the bill and the eye ; and a similar example
from Scotland is in the British Museum.
P YG OP ODES. A LCIDJ,:-
A lca im p e n n is , Linnaeus U
THE GREAT AUK,
OR GARE-FOWL.
Alca impennis.
T h e G reat A uk was described as a very rare British Biid
when the 1st Edition of this work was published in 1843,
but in all probability neither the Author nor the majority
of the ornithologists of that generation suspected that the
* Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 210 (1766).