Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/290

AUGUSTUS'S BAND. stationed, and consisted of those who did not, generally speaking, possess citizen rights. From the reference in Acts xxvii. 1 ("They delivered Paul to a centurion named Julius of the Augustan band") it was evidently located in Cæsarea, which, after the deposition of Archelans (a.d. 5), became the residence, of the Procurator of Judea, incorporated at that time into the en- larged Province of Syria.

This band differed from the Italian band (Gk. STreipa 'IraXiKii), mentioned, in Acts x. 1, as stationed at the same place, in that the latter was evidently composed of Koman volun- teers who had been recruited in Italy, having been unable to secure service in the Praetorian Guard.

AUK, ak. A name applied collectively to a family of Arctic diving sea-birds (Alcid» — the type in some classifications of a higher group, Alcoidea — many of which are more specifically known as guillemots, murres, lomvias, puffins, etc.). All l)elong in the north polar regions, tak- ing the place of the Antarctic penguins, and they are particularly numerous upon the Alaskan and Siberian coasts. Some species, however, dwell considerably south of the Arctic Circle, or formerly did so. Their nenrost relatives are the grebes and loons. They differ from the former by the presence of tail-feathers and lack of lobes upon the toes, and from the loons by the absence of a hind-toe. They are thickset, stout birds, only a few living species exceeding a foot in length ; the legs are set so far back that the birds seem to stand on their tails, and are able to move about only with difiiculty and awkwardly, while the feathers of the wings and tail are so short that flight is feeble and secondary to the use of the wings as paddles for swimming under water, where they progress with remarkable speed and endurance. The sea is their real home, where they obtain their food by diving and pur- suing fishes: and their plumage, in adaptation to these conditions, is exceedingly dense and lus- trous, and the skins are extensively utilized by the Eskimo in the making of light clothing. The colors are usually black, brown, or dark lead- color above, and white beneath, but in the nuptial season bright colors and a variety of ornamental crests, plumes, and appendages to the bill appear temporarily. The bill in the auks (especially the puffins) is exceedingly compressed, and often has a knife-like eulmen, and deep, thin under- niandible. It is a popular belief that this shape is utilized as a thin wedge for opening clams and other bivalves ; but this is an error, the bird swallowing whole the few small mollusks and crustaceans with which it varies its fish diet. An extraordinary feature of this extraordinary kind of beak is that, in the breeding season, among the puffin group of the family, the beak becomes largely increased in size, and various appendages may be added about its base, varying with the species, while it glows with bright colors ; but as the season passes, and the semi- annual molt of feathers begins, these excres- cences and the plates about the base scale ofi', and the gay colors disappear. (For details, see Stejneger, ISulletin United States Nat. Muneitm, No. 29, 1885, illustrated).

Auks migrate in autumn from their most northerly haunts and from all frozen coa.sts to the open spaces of sea, where they spend the winter afloat or on the drifting ice. With the opening of spring they resort in enormous num- bers to the coasts of the northern oceans wher- ever rocky cliffs confront the sea ; and they take possession of niches and ledges as breeding- places, sometimes in tens of thousands, each affectionate pair preempting and defending a little home-space. Only a single egg is laid, which is large for the size of the bird, conical in outline, and is constantly watched and warmed by the parents alternately. No nest whatever is made, but the egg is held upon the webbed feet and kept warm between the thighs. (Selous, Bird Watcliinf!, London, 1901). These eggs are marbled and blotched with a great variety of colors. Accounts difVer as to how the young get down to the water, and it is probable that vari- ous methods of carrying are employed, while some seem simply to throw themselves or be tumbled off the ledge into the sea. Foxes and various animals raid these hosts wherever ac- cessible, and the natives of the Arctic regions depend largely upon them for food, capturing both birds and eggs in great nvimbers, and pre- serving them for winter food. Similarly the eggs are considered an important resource of the non-civilized inhabitants of the Aleutian and Ivamchatkan coasts, southern Greenland, and the Hebrides. Three species of the North .At- lantic deserve particular mention :

The Great Auk, or Garefowl (Plautus impcn- nis), which is now extinct, but within historic times was an inhabitant of the North Atlantic coasts as far south as the Hebrides and the Gulf of Newfoundland. It was as large as a goose, and black and white in colors. It is fully de- scribed under Extinct Animals, and Gare- fowl; and is illustrated on the plate of AuK, Alb-^tross, etc.

The Little Auk {Alca ullc) is the smallest of the tribe, not larger than a robin, black above and white beneath, and occurs in vast numbers throughout the Atlantic Arctic region, and south- ward in winter sometimes as far as New York and the Great Lakes. It is remarkable for hav- ing a bill more like that of a fowl than like that of its type. See DovEKiE.

The Razor-billed Aitk {Alca torda) is 15 to 18 inches in length, black and white (in summer head and neck snull-brown, and a white wing- bar), has a bill of remarkable height and sharpness, and breeds as far south as the coast of Maine. See Razor-bill; Guillemot; and Puffin.

AULD LANG SYNE, .aid lang sin (Scotch, old long since). A Scottish song, traced to the year 1000. It was retouched by Burns, w-ho- added two stanzas, and was set by George Thom- son to the old Lowland air, "I fcc'd a lad at Michaelmas."

AULD REE'KIE. A name given by the Scotch to Edinburgh. from the fact that the air reeks with smoke and the streets with filth.

AULD ROB'IN GRAY. A pathetic ballad, published anonymously in 1772, by Lady Anne Barnard, who had written it two years before, in her twenty-first 3'ear, but who did not acknowledge it until two years before her death, in 1S25. In a letter to Sir Walter Scott, Lady Anne explained that she was inspired to write it by a certain old Scottish tune, of which she was passionately fond, but in which the words