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RAZORBILL

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 938 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RAZORBILL , or See also:

RAZOR-BILLED See also:AUK, known also on many parts of the See also:British coasts as the Marrot, Murre, See also:Scout, See also:Tinker or See also:Willock—names which it, however, shares with the See also:GUILLEMOT (q.v.) and to some extent with the See also:PUFFIN (q.v.)—a See also:common See also:sea-See also:bird of the See also:North See also:Atlantic,' resorting in vast See also:numbers to certain rocky cliffs for the purpose of breeding, and returning to deeper See also:waters for the See also:rest of the See also:year. It is the Alca torda of Linnaeus2 and most See also:modern authors, congeneric with the GAREFOWL (q.v.), if not with the true Guillemots, between which two forms it is intermediate—differing from the former in its small See also:size and retaining the See also:power of See also:flight, which that See also:extinct See also:species had lost, and from the latter in its peculiarly-shaped See also:bill, which is vertically enlarged, compressed, and deeply furrowed, as well as in its elongated, See also:wedge-shaped tail. A See also:fine See also:white See also:line, See also:running ' See also:Schlegel (See also:Mus. See also:des Pays-Bas, Urinatores, p. 14) records an example from See also:Japan; but this must be in See also:error. 2 The word Alca is simply the Latinized See also:form of this bird's common See also:Teutonic name, Alk, of which Auk is the See also:English modification. It must therefore be held to be the type of the Linnaean genus Alca, though some systematists on indefensible grounds have removed it thence, making it the See also:sole member of a genus named by Leach, after Aldrovandus (Ornithologia, bk. xix. See also:chap. xlix.), Utamania—an extraordinary word, that seems to have originated in some See also:mistake from the no less extraordinary Vuttamaria, given by See also:Belon (Observations, i. c. xi.) as the Cretan name of some diving bird, which could not have been the See also:present species. on each See also:side from the See also:base of the culmen to the See also:eye, is in the adult bird in breeding-See also:apparel (with rare exceptions) a further characteristic. Otherwise the See also:appearance of all these birds may be briefly described in the same words—See also:head, See also:breast and upper parts generally of a deep glossy See also:black, and the See also:lower parts and tip of the secondaries of a pure white, while the various changes of plumage dependent on See also:age or See also:season are alike in all. In habits the razorbill closely agrees with the true guillemots, laying its single See also:egg (which is not, however, subject to the same variety of coloration as in the guillemot) on the ledges of cliffs, but it is said as a See also:rule to occupy higher elevations, and when not breeding to keep farther out to sea. On the See also:east side of the Atlantic the Razorbill has its breeding stations from the North Cape to See also:Brittany, besides several in the Baltic, while in See also:winter it passes much farther to the southward, and is sometimes numerous in the See also:Bay of See also:Gibraltar, occasionally entering the Mediterranean, but apparently never extending east of See also:Sicily or See also:Malta. On the See also:west side of the Atlantic it breeds from 70° N. See also:lat. on the eastern See also:shore of See also:Baffin's Bay to Cape Farewell, and again on the See also:coast of See also:America from Labrador and See also:Newfoundland to the Bay of See also:Fundy, while in winter it reaches See also:Long See also:Island. (A.

N.) RAllIA (an See also:

adaptation of the Algerian Arabic ghazzah, from ghasw, to make See also:war), a foray or See also:raid made by See also:African Moslems. As used by the See also:Arabs, the word denotes a military expedition against rebels or infidels, and razzias were made largely for See also:punishment of hostile tribes or for the See also:capture of slaves. English writers in the See also:early years of the loth See also:century used the form ghrazzie, and See also:Dixon See also:Denham in his Travels (1826) styles the raiding force itself the ghrazzie. The modern English form is copied from the See also:French, while the Portuguese variant is gazia, gaziva. RE, the See also:Egyptian See also:solar See also:god, one of the most important figures in the See also:Pantheon. See See also:EGYPT, See also:section Egyptian See also:Religion. RE, ILE DE, an island of western See also:France, belonging to the See also:department of See also:Charente-Inferieure, from the nearest mainland point of which it is distant about 2 M. The island has an See also:area of nearly 33 sq. m., with a breadth varying from 1 to 41 M. and a length of 15 m. It is separated from the coast of See also:Vendee on the N. by the Pertuis See also:Breton, some 6 m. broad, and from the island of See also:Oleron on the S. by the Pertuis D'Antioche, 72 M. broad. The coast facing the Atlantic is rocky and inhospitable, but there are numerous harbours on the landward side, of which the busiest is La Flotte. Towards the north-west extremity of the island there is a deep indentation, the Fier d'Ars, which leaves an See also:isthmus only 230 ft. wide, strengthened by a See also:breakwater. The north coast is fringed by See also:dunes and by the See also:salt-marshes which are the See also:chief source of livelihood for the inhabitants.

Some of them are employed in fishing, See also:

oyster-cultivation and the collection of seaweed for manure; the island has See also:corn-lands and vineyards, the latter covering about See also:half its See also:surface, and produces See also:good See also:figs and See also:pears. Apart from its orchards it is now woodless, though once covered by forests. There are two cantons, St See also:Martin (pop. in Igoe, 8362) and Ars-en-Re (pop. 4711) forming See also:part of the See also:arrondissement of La Rochelle. St Martin, the See also:capital, which has a secure See also:harbour and See also:trade in See also:wine, See also:brandy, salt, &c., was fortified by See also:Vauban in 1681 and used to be the See also:depot for convicts on their way to New See also:Caledonia. In 1627 it repulsed an English force after a See also:siege of three months.

End of Article: RAZORBILL

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