The Razor-billed Auc, owing to its boreal residence, is not so well known as many other marine species which breed nearer home. Like its few intimate cousins, it is chiefly restricted to Arctic regions, only coming southward when pressed by severe weather.

Though apparently the best known of its family, yet many of the details of its habits are lacking to render its biography anything like complete. Of its area of distribution we are tolerably well-informed. In the north-eastern portions of North America, particularly along the sea-borders of Labrador and Newfoundland, it is quite plentiful, and thence occasionally strays along the coast-lines of New England and the Middle States during the winter. These birds, however, are not confined to this continent, but are identical with the bird of the northern regions of the Old World.

According to Mr. Cory, who has studied them in their haunts, they are remarkably abundant and prolific on some of the Magdalen Islands, Bird Rock and Byron Island especially, where the young birds were observed in their downy robes of black and white.

Visiting the United States only in small numbers during the inclemency of winter, its predilection for the northern homes of its fathers—when the mild breath of spring in its upward march from the South has tempered with mercy the reign of old Boreas in his rocky, ice-bound fastnesses—induces it to take its departure, and wend its longing flight thither.

There is not the slightest evidence, so far as our investigations have extended, to show that any attempts have ever been made to nest along the shores of this country. The fact that the species breeds on the islands in the Bay of Fundy, would seem to warrant the belief that they may yet be found to visit the coast of Maine for this purpose. There seems to be no good reason why they should not do so, as the maritime parts of this State are apparently as well adapted for nesting as the islands just mentioned.

Be this as it may, cool northern localities seem to be more advantageous, and there, along with the Guillemots as their neighbors, the subject of our sketch establishes his home and rears his little family.

In boreal regions where the amatory forces are not called into action as early as in more southern climes, by reason of the greater degrees of cold which prevail, the acquirement of food seems to exercise such a controlling influence over bird-nature, that all other duties are held under temporary restraint. Consequently, matrimonial relations are not entered into as early as in warmer latitudes. This essential business is delayed, and is only warmed into activity when the sun has reached the northern limits of its course.

About the beginning of June, there occurs a lull in foraging transactions, and the sexes become suddenly aware of the object of their creation. Mating is at once entered into, but with what appearance of show, we are unable to say.

Having attended to this duty, without further ado, they seek themselves out a spot in which to lay their egg or eggs. For this purpose a horizontal cavern or some exposed locality is generally chosen. But when they deposit their eggs along with the Guillemots, which they are occasionally disposed to do, they drop them in situations from which the water can escape without offering any material injury thereto.

In deep fissures, many birds lie together, and place their eggs upon small beds of pebbles or broken stones, which are raised a couple of inches or more, so that the water may readily pass beneath them. Here the eggs are scattered at distances of three or four inches from each other, and are incubated, as in the case of the Ducks, by the birds sitting flat upon them. Whereas, upon an exposed rock, each bird stands almost upright on its egg.

There yet remains a very strange fact concerning this Auk, which needs to be noted. It pertains to the number of eggs which is to constitute a nest-full. When nesting occurs in secluded situations, where security against tidal currents, and divers accidents, is to be gained, in the majority of instances, two eggs are found under a single female. In exposed situations, on the other hand, it is a rare occurrence to find more than one egg as a complement.

The above statements, which are substantially those of Audubon, have been repeatedly verified by other observers, some of whom are among the writer's most reliable correspondents. At first we were disposed to question their accuracy. We could not see what advantages a sequestered situation had over one that was open and exposed, so as to lead the birds to double their number in the former case. Our only way out of the difficulty then, was by supposing the two eggs to be laid by different birds, in close proximity to each other. For want of the necessary room to accommodate the two females, it became the duty of one or the other to assume the responsibility of them. Owing to the great difficulty of distinguishing the eggs of this species from those of the Murre or Foolish Guillemot, which most oologists have experienced, and which Audubon does not seem to have encountered, it occurred to us that as the Auks are prone to drop their eggs alongside of those of the Guillemots, maybe the two eggs were those of distinct species, and not the product of the one under consideration.

Without further mincing of matters, there does not seem to be any valid reason for doubting the authenticity of Audubon's statements. But as a true student of Nature, it is our duty to receive the facts, confirmed as they have been by subsequent observations, and seek an explanation thereof which will be both rational and philosophic.

In exposed situations, the eggs are subject to certain perils, such as exposures to storms and violent gusts of wind, which more retired places would guard against. The Auks have doubtless learned this as a lesson of experience. Perhaps, necessity only compels them to occupy such sites, when there is a scarcity of deep fissures and horizontal caverns, by reason of a superabundance of mated individuals. If one egg could be better protected and covered than two, which the nearly erect attitude of the bird would seem to warrant us in believing, some females would certainly not be slow in perceiving the advantages to be acquired. The experiment being tried by birds of unusual sagacity, and with happy results, in course of time all the others would be led to the practice of depositing a single egg. Furthermore, the laying of one egg, in case of breakage, would not be as severely felt as in cases where more than one constituted the complement. The habit of laying one egg in exposed situations, would doubtless be continued for a while at least, should the species so accustomed, ever be called upon to nest in places protected by the rocky munitions of Nature. And, on the other hand, birds habituated to nesting in sheltered situations, would for a while continue to deposit two eggs for a setting.

The eggs being laid, the female soon commences to incubate. This seems to be the exclusive labor of the sex. The fact that she plucks the feathers from her abdomen, forming one or two bare spots (according to the number which is to compose her complement) with a ridge of feathers between them, though circumstantial in character, is the only kind of evidence that we have to offer in support of our assertion. Of the precise time required for hatching, we have no knowledge. From the size of the egg, and the thickness of its shell, we reason from analogy that it cannot be less than twenty-four days. The female is not a constant sitter during the daytime, the heated pebbles on clear, sunshiny days supplying the necessary warmth during her absence. When the weather is cloudy, and even during the cool nights, she remains on the nest, the male, as a faithful husband, doubtless answering her calls for food, or keeping her company.

That these birds manifest true affection for each other cannot be denied. They may have a different way of showing it from what we are accustomed to see among our small land-birds, but we cannot speak with positiveness. But this much is undisputed, when one is killed, its mate does not desert it, but paddles around it, as if seeking the cause of its stillness. At such times, so absorbed does it become, whether from grief or wonder we cannot say, that it can easily be approached and knocked over with an oar.

The food of the Razor-bills consists of small fishes, roe, shrimps, various marine animals, and floating garbage, which they procure by diving and swimming, or pick up among the rocks which they frequent. The young doubtless subsist upon the same materials, which they receive from their parents, in small pieces, during their earliest life. But after they have passed the downy stage, and are thrown, in a measure, upon their own resources, they imitate the example of their parents.

So much like the eggs of the Foolish Guillemot or Murre, already mentioned, are those of this species, that it is impossible to discern a characteristic so peculiar and persistent as to enable us to distinguish them apart. The ground-color is generally a pure-white; but specimens are often met with which are cream-colored, and others, again, which are tinted with green. The spots and blotches are irregularly distributed, but chiefly about the middle and the larger end. Some are small and nearly round, others large and irregular. In color they show different shades of black and brown. In addition to these markings, there are others scattered over the egg, of an obscure-purple hue, which have the appearance of being beneath the outside of the shell. The eggs vary in shape; occasionally they are pyriform and ovoidal, and, at other times, decidedly ovate.

Their length is 3.19 inches, and breadth 2.13. In the Plate, the egg is figured the natural size, and placed upon the summit of a small pile of stones at the entrance to a cavern along a rocky seashore. The birds are reduced and put in the background, the idea being to show their form, as well as the arrangement of their plumage.

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