528 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



extremely expert in diving, using their pinions as oars in- 

 stead of the feet, thus flying as it were in the water, as well 

 as in the air. After the young are hatched, and capable 

 of migrating, by the close of August, they all disappear 

 from the shores of Britain, and are seen in winter on the 

 coasts of the Baltic, Holland, France, and as far as Italy 

 along the borders of the Atlantic. Many of the young as 

 well as old birds of this species, also bred in colder latitudes, 

 migrate in winter along the coasts of Norway, Holland, and 

 England, seeming as it were to fill up the place of those 

 which have left their native shores for still milder climates. 

 The inhabitants of Kamtschatka kill the Murres in great 

 numbers for the sake of their flesh, though it is said to be 

 tough and ill tasted, but more especially for their skins, of 

 which, as of other fowls, they make garments ; but the eggs 

 ■are every where accounted as a delicacy. It is called by 

 the Welsh Guillem, and in the southern parts of England 

 Willock. 



The length of the Murre is about 17 to 18 inches, (the female is said 

 to be somewhat smaller ;) the length of the tail 2 inches : of the 

 wing about 7^ inches ; the bill from above, 1 inch 10 lines ; the tar- 

 sus 1 inch 3 lines. The head and front of the neck rich pitch-black 

 inclining to umber. The dorsal plumage and wings greyish-black. 

 Tips of the secondaries and under plumage white ; that color form- 

 ing a rounded projection into the black of the neck. Bill and legs 

 black. Margins of the eye-lids and a suture from behind the eye, 

 white. In other specimens from the same locality the eye-lids and 

 suture are black, as in the following species. Bill longer than the 

 head, considerably compressed, commissure nearly straight; lower 

 mandible acutely notched at the tip. 



In icinter the under parts of the head and throat are white, and 

 the black of the dorsal plumage loses its brownish tinge. 



In the young of the year, the bill is shorter, cinereous, and yel- 

 lowish at the base ; the black above is shaded with ashy -brown. 

 The longitudinal band behind the eyes is also less distinct, and blende 

 in ashy spots with the white of the sides of the occiput ; ashy-brown 



