224 proceedings of the 



April 28th, 1868. 



Hugh Colqulioun, M.D., President, in the chair. Mr James 

 Young was elected a resident member. 



SPECIMENS EXHIBITED. 



Two specimens of the ringed or bridled Cluillemot (Ur'm 

 lachrymans), in winter plumage, were exlxibited by Mr J. Gil- 

 mour, who shot them, in the beginning of April, in Kilbrannan 

 Sound. 



Mr Gray, the secretary, remarked that after having carefully 

 examined thirty or forty specimens of this bird, he could perceive 

 no distinction in any one specimen entitling it to rank as a sepa- 

 rate species, some of the common guillemots having the rich brown 

 colour on the head and neck which is said to distinguish the 

 ringed birds, while the latter possess, in many instances, a stout 

 bill, besides other characters belonging to the .common species, 

 thus reversing or interchanging the supposed distinctive features. 

 Mr Gray further remarked that this ringed variety occurs now in 

 considerable numbers on the western shores of Scotland, especially 

 as we recede towards the outer Hebrides. On Ailsa Craig it is 

 found every year; and during the time the tacksman and his 

 assistants are snaring the sea fowl, they get on an average three 

 specimens in a week. On Handa, an island off the west coast of 

 Sutherlandshire, it also occurs in tolerable abundance, being found 

 mixing with the other species in the proportion of one to a 

 hundred. But in the outer Hebrides it is even more plentiful. 

 At Barra Head, for example, where there is a series of magnificent 

 cliffs, rivalling Ailsa Craig in grandeur and extent, the proportion 

 is one in fifty. On the east coast of Scotland generally the variety 

 is very rare, and is now but seldom, if ever, oliserved on the Bass 

 Rock, although it was found there on one or two occasions many 

 years ago. Nor does it appear to frequent St Abb's Head, one of 

 the principal nurseries for sea fowl on that side of the country. 

 Looking, then, at the fact of the ringed guillemot being confined, 

 at least in numbers, to the west coast, and seeing that as we make 

 our observations towards Sutherlandshire, and recede from Scot- 

 land by way of the Long Island or outer Hebrides, it becomes still 

 more numerous, we are led first to infer that even a variety may 

 become established in a particular locality, and then to conclude 



