alchemy (alkemi)

[Early mod. E. also alchymy, alcumy, alco my, alcamy, alkimy, etc., Egypt, lit. black earth'; but χημία is prob. for χυμεία, a mingling, an infusion, E. chyme, q. v.), The auks; a family of natatorial sea-birds having short wings and tail, palmate three-toed feet, and a bill shaped very variously in the different species. The body is stout and clumsy, and the legs are inserted far back and deeply buried in the common integument of the body, as in other birds of the order Pygopodes. The family is variously subdivided by different writers, the most obvious division being into the Alcinæ proper, with stout, hooked bills, comprising the auks, puffins, etc., and the Uriinæ, or guillemots and murres, with long, slender, acute bills. The family contains some 25 species of about 12 genera. The Alcide are all marine, and confined to the northern Atlantic, northern Pacific, and Polar seas. Also written Alcada. See cuts under Alca, murre, and puffin.