THE BINGED GUILLEMOT. 169 



in 1840. This description in every particular could be then applied to the 

 well-known species, with the exception of the lachrymose stripe; and this 

 specimen is referred to as a species by Dr. Fleming, who at one time repu- 

 diated its claims to notice as such. This shews the prevailing tendency to 

 recognise it without doubt, or at least to allow it to remain where it is. 

 Some collectors, however, are not proof against that objectionable desire to 

 find out something more than the debateable differences; and we therefore 

 hear of specimens having been procured through some circumstance hardly 

 observable, such as a difference in the mode of flying or swimming, which, 

 in examples of such close relationship as the present, can only be received 

 with extreme caution. 



On the other hand it is equally unsafe to allow prejudice to influence 

 any decision, and those who consider the bird a variety only, may impatiently 

 condemn its claims to rank as a species. 



Mr. Proctor, Sub-curator of the Durham Museum, found, during a visit 

 to Grirnsay, north of Iceland, the three Guillemots — Brunnichii, troile, 

 and lachrymans, all breeding in separate colonies, their eggs being distin- 

 guishable by the natives, and each of the birds being known by a different 

 name. This apparently conclusive testimony is, however, contradicted by 

 the evidence of Mr. J. Wolley, who at a meeting of the British Association, 

 in 1850, read an account of a two months' visit to the Ferroe Islands, 

 where he found the two birds we are speaking of breeding promiscuously, 

 in the proportion of one ringed bird to ten without that ornament. He 

 collected the eggs of both, and could not distinguish between them. 



Having then noticed the difficulties which prevent any satisfactory decision 

 with respect to the Ringed Guillemot, I shall proceed to notice the evidence 

 both in favour and against its specific identity, which I do without hesitation, 

 having materials in my possession, not enough perhaps to clear up standing 

 doubts, but sufficient in themselves to justify an attempt to correct errors 

 in describing details, in so far as the average value of these details becomes 

 diminished, if not altogether lost. Every writer has attempted to establish 

 some characters whereby we may distinguish the one bird from the other, 

 and no one has done so better than Sir William Jardine, who observes in 

 his Manual that he has no hesitation in considering the Ringed or Bridled 

 Guillemot as "one of those closely allied species which we frequently meet 

 with in particular genera." The specimens from which he formed his 

 conclusions were lent to him by Mr. Gould, and were without a doubt 

 strongly marked and characteristic; hence from his limited means of com- 

 parison at the time he wrote his account he was probably led into the 

 erroneous belief that these characters, so apparent in the individuals which 

 he examined, were permanent. 



Taking a characteristic specimen of the Uria lachrymans, we find that 



