FOOLISH GUILLEMOT, OR MURRE. 527 



itant of the high northern latitudes of both continents. In 

 Europe they extend their swarming colonies as far as the 

 ever wintry coast of Spitzbergen, they are also seen in 

 Lapmarck, and along the White and Icy Sea, as far as 

 Kamtschatka. Along the whole coast of Hudson's Bay, 

 Labrador, and Newfoundland, they congregate in swarms. 

 They also breed in the Orkneys, and in more temperate 

 climates, when the local situation happens to suit their par- 

 ticular habits and instinct ; thus, they are extremely numer- 

 ous in the desert isle of Priestholm, contiguous to the island 

 of Anglesey, on the Godreve rocks, not far from St. Ives, in 

 Cornwall, the Farn isles off the coast of Northumberland, 

 and the cliffs of the Isle of Wight and of Scarborough in 

 Yorkshire. Occasionally the young are seen along the 

 coasts of the United States ; but the great body of the spe- 

 cies, in America, according to Audubon, winter in the Bay 

 of Fundy, where they find an open sea, congenial rocks, and 

 a cool temperature. 



They begin to assemble on their customary cliffs, in Eng- 

 land, early in May, and crowd together in such numbers, 

 that it is not uncommon to see hundreds sitting upon their 

 eggs on the ledge of a rock, all in a line, and nearly touch- 

 ing each other. They lay but a single egg, on the flat and 

 bare rock, without any precaution to protect it or the pro- 

 geny arising from it by any shelter or convenience at all 

 like a nest. It is of a palish green, blotched and marked 

 with black and deep umber-brown. They rarely quit their 

 eggs unless disturbed, and are fed during the time, chiefly 

 with small fish or other marine productions, by the male. 

 In inaccessible places, or where seldom disturbed, it is with 

 difficulty that they are roused to flight, and may then some- 

 times be taken by the hand ; others flutter into the water, 

 below the cliffs on which they nestle, and seem in fact to try 

 every expedient but that of flight. They are at all times 



