on the 28th July. He describes this species as fishing for
Entomostraca, flocks of them diving just in time to avoid
the ship’s stem. “ These birds use their wings vigorously
to propel themselves under water. It was observable that
the individuals in a diving flock kept their relative distances
and bearings under water with as much correctness as if on
the wing, and all returned to the surface within a second of
one another. During the breeding-season the pouch-like
enlargement of the cheeks gives them a singular appearance.
The contents of the cheeks is a reddish-coloured substance,
which on closer examination is found to consist of immense
numbers of minute Crustacea. The adaptation of the
mouth in this species, as a receptacle for the food required
for their young, does not appear to have attracted much
attention among naturalists; and yet a little consideration
would have shown that some such arrangement must be required.
With fish-feeders, such as Alca, XJria, and Frater-
cula, no difficulty arises in transporting food to their young ;
but in the case of Mergulus alle, which, I believe, subsists
entirely on minute Crustacea, the bill is manifestly incapable
of conveying the requisite amount of food, especially as very
often the breeding-places of the Little Auk are found inland,
at considerable distances from the sea. This bird does not
appear to be possessed of great powers of flight, or capable
of making headway against a gale : this will account for its
having often been picked up in an exhausted condition far
inland. In autumn Little Auks were migrating southwards
in immense numbers from Davis Strait : probably these
flocks were bound for the Labrador and Newfoundland
coasts, for I did not observe them later on during that
voyage in the Atlantic to the eastward of the longitude of
Cape Farewell” (Zool. 1878, p. 383).
In the adult bird the beak is leaden-black ; the irides
hazel; a small white spot over the eye ; the head, hind
neck, back, wings, and tail black, but the ends of the
secondaries and the sides of the scapulars margined with
white ; the colour of the chin, throat, and neck in front,
depend on the season, being black in summer and white in
LITTLE AUK. 89
winter, but mottled with black and white in spring and
autumn; under surface of the body white ; legs and toes
livid-brown, the membranes between the toes darker brown.
Sabine remarks, “ The whole of the birds in the breeding-
season, the sexes being alike, had the under part of the neck
an uniform sooty-black, terminating abruptly, and in an even
line against the white of the belly; the young birds, which
we saw in all stages from the egg, as soon as they were
feathered, were marked exactly as the mature birds ; but
in the third iveek in September, when we were on our
passage down the American coast, every specimen, whether
old or young, was observed to be in change; and in the
course of a few days the entire feathers of the throat and
cheeks, and of the under part of the neck, had become
white.”
The whole length of the bird is about eight inches and a
half; of the wing from the wrist four inches and a half.
A nestling taken by Major Feilden on the 28th of July,
1875, is covered with down of a uniform sooty-brown, but
when half-fledged the underparts are white.
An albino example of this species is in the British
Museum.
In the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere there is a
genus of small Petrels—Pelecanoides—the members of
which bear a strong superficial resemblance to the Little
Auk in size, form, colour, and mode of flight; but on close
examination, they will at once be recognized by their
tubular nostrils.