auht ( h guttural)

[AGHT, Ант.] Property. (S. in Boucher.) * âuht'-end, ( h guttural), a. [A.S. eahta-tyne.] Eighteenth. "In his auhtend year." Rob. de Brunne, p. 83. (S. in Boucher .) âuk (in Provinc. Eng. âlk), s. [Icel. aulka ; Sw. alkaa puffin; Dan. alke ; Ger. alk ; Mod. Lat. alca ] [ALCA.] The name given to several sea-birds, especially the Great and the Little Auk. 1. The Great Auk is the Alca impennis of Linnæus. [ALCA, ALCIDE.) It was from two to two and a-half feet high, with short wings almost usele for flight. In the water, however, it moved with astonishing rapidity. It occasionally visited Britain, but was e entially a Northern bird. Its bones left behind show that it was formerly abundant on the shores of Iceland, Green land, and Denmark. This species became extinct towards the close of the first half of the nineteenth century. 2. The Little Auk of Pennant and others, called also the Common Rotche, and the Little White and Black Diver, is the Mergulus melano leu cos of Yarrell's British Birds , the M. alle of Carpenter and Dallas, and the Alca Its alle of Linnæus. It has the breast, the belly, a dot above the eyes, and a stripe on the wing, white; the rest of the plumage black. length is nine inches, and the extent of its wings sixteen. Its dimensions are thus about those of a large pigeon. It nestles in holes or crevices on the bare rocks, laying one bluish green egg. It is abundant in the Arctic seas. It occurs also in Britain. 3. One of the English names given to a bird, the Razor-bill ( Alca torda ). King of the Auks : A Scotch name for the Great Auk ( Alca impennis ). [See No. 1.]