86 AI.C1D.E.
Shetland than further south. Somewhat intermediate in its
characters between the Guillemots and the Auks, it has
been considered worthy of generic distinction, and separated
accordingly.
Truly oceanic in its habits, and, unless forced by neces- j
sity, rarely seen on land except in the breeding-season, this j
species usually makes its appearance on our coasts with,
or soon after, the stormy weather which often follows each
autumnal equinox, when it is forced by violent and long-
continuing winds to leave the rougher sea and take shelter
in land-locked bays, where it is easily shot. Individuals are r
not unfrequently driven while on wing over the land itself, I
far from their natural marine haunts, to situations where
they are generally found either exhausted or dead. Some >
occur almost every year.
A remarkable instance of this sort occurred in the month
of October, 1841. Dr. Edward Clarke, of Hartlepool, sent
the Author word, that after a violent storm of wind from
N.N.E., which lasted several days, his attention was directed
by pilots and fishermen on the look-out, to various flocks of
small black and white birds, then close in shore. There
were several hundreds of them, which were unknown to
these seafaring men, but which proved to be the Little Auk.
Many were obtained, five or six being killed at each shot,
the birds were so numerous. The same thing happened at
the same time at Redcar, on the Yorkshire coast, but after
two or three days, the wind abating, they wrere seen no more.
About the same time the Author heard from various friends
of other examples being taken in many different counties,—
in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent, and Sussex.
During the early part of November, 1841, a few of these
birds were sent for sale to the London markets. Some were
taken at unusual distances inland. Mr. Tlirale, a collector
in Hertfordshire, sent notice of one that was obtained on
the mill-head at Wheatliamstead; and another, which was
picked up alive between Baldock and Royston, is now preserved
in the Museum at Saffron Walden. The Author
heard of others taken near Birmingham ; Strickland reLITTLE
AUK. 87
corded nine taken in Worcestershire ; three in Shropshire ;
some at Bristol, and other parts near the Severn. Since the
above was written the Little Auk has been obtained all
round the coast of England. In Scotland it is tolerably
common on the east side, but decidedly a straggler, according
to Mr. R. Gray, on the west; and in the Shetlands and
Orkneys it is observed almost every winter. In Ireland, its
appearance in Wexford and Kerry has been noted by Thompson
; and it has been observed on other parts of the coast.
There is no evidence that it has bred in any part of the
British Islands, although examples are occasionally obtained
in full summer plumage. Mr. F. Bond has a fine specimen
with full black throat, picked up dead in the Solent.
The Little Auk visits the Faeroes, the coasts of Scandinavia,
the North Sea, Germany, the Netherlands, France,
the western side of the Iberian Peninsula, the Canaries, and
the Azores. It is found round Iceland throughout the year,
but its only breeding-place there appears to be on Grimsey,
in the extreme north-west. About Bear Island, which, in
spite of its comparatively high latitude, is, as before obseived,
under the influence of the Gulf Stream, the Little Auk is
not common, nor is it known to breed ; but in and about Spitsbergen
its numbers are almost incredible from 78° N. lat. up
to the drift ice, about which Parry found it up to 82° ; it was
also observed on Franz-Josef Land. It is common on the
west side of Novaya Zemlya, but rare on the east, and in the
Kara Sea, which seems to mark the limits of its range in
that direction. In Greenland it breeds from 68 N. lat. upwards,
but although there are large colonies in Baffin Bay,
it does not appear to extend to the western side, nor can its
range be traced through the Arctic regions to the Pacific. In
winter it visits the Atlantic coast as far as New Jersey.
The Little Auk deposits its single egg in holes or tunnels
under stones, so far in that the Arctic foxes cannot reach i t .
often in cliffs up to 2 000 feet above sea-level; the coloui
is a pale greenish-blue, sometimes faintly spotted anti
scrolled with reddish ; average measurements 1‘9 by D25 in.
At Foulke Bay, Major Feilden found the young just hatched