74 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



the edge of the rock. I could never see the young 

 ones fed; hut the old Mrd, on arriving with a fish 

 to the ledges, would hold it in its bill for a long 

 time, despite the efforts on the part of others to 

 deprive it of the same. After as long as ten minutes 

 or a quarter of an hour after its arrival, the bird 

 w^ould turn round and shove or fight its way behind 

 the others, turn its back, and then nestle and 

 aj)parently feed its young one. When carrying a 

 single fish in their mouth both Guillemots and Razor- 

 bills place it horizontally in the bill, head in, and 

 the tail hanging out near the tip between the 

 partially closed mandibles, the fish glistening very 

 distinctly in the sun. 



When a Guillemot has its egg on a narrow ledge, 

 it is very careful not to leave it in a hurry for fear 

 of knocking it over. I tried firing a gun under one 

 of the most crowded places to see if they would 

 knock over any of their eggs when thus disturbed 

 suddenly, but although quantities of birds flew out, I 

 saw no egg fall. 



I ought to mention that I saw one egg in a crack 

 of a rock. 



Black Guillemot (Uria cjrylle). Common and 

 resident, keeping iDretty much to the same ground 

 all the year round, excej)t when driven in by heavy 

 storms. They breed in crevices of the rock, and 

 under stones, usually laying two eggs ; though I have 

 taken a single egg from under a stone, and seen a 

 single young one in the nest, the latter, though well 

 grown, was still covered with black down. Black 

 Guillemots lay their eggs at times a long way in the 

 cairns near the sea-side, as I have seen three and 

 four birds fly out of one of such places and been 

 unable to find a single nest. As regards the change 

 of plumage, I have nothing to add to Dr. Saxby's 

 notes in his Birds of Shethmdy except as regards the 

 brown that sometimes appears on the white wing- 

 spot. I observed this once only, either in July or 

 August, out of the numbers that came under my 

 observation. 



