ARCTIC ZOOLOGY. 145 



called the foolish guillemot, rather amused than alarmed, 

 awaits his pursuer's approach, who, from his singular ac- 

 curacy of aim, and experience of distance, seldom fails 

 to strike his object. The warm blood of the loom is a 

 delicious cordial on the occasion, and the flesh a ready 

 repast. The skin is much prized as material for inside 

 dress, for which it is certainly well calculated, from the 

 depth of the plumage. A proof of the estimation in which 

 this little capture is held among the Greenlanders is their 

 unwillingness to barter those birds with Europeans, the 

 highest compliment being an offer of truck for one of 

 them. The loom is seventeen inches in length. 



Colymhus Grylle (black guillemot, or dovekee). — The 

 many changes of plumage which this bird puts on, from 

 variety of climate, and such other circumstances as sway 

 its habits, admit a description only of its general charac- 

 ters. Body above, sootj^ black ; wing coverts, white, or 

 white intermixed with light-brown ; body beneath, white ; 

 bill, black and long ; inside of the mouth and legs, red ; 

 length, from twelve to fourteen inches. 



The habits of the dovekee are scarcely different from 

 those of the loom. Like the latter, it is gregarious ; but 

 seldom joining in society with others of the genus. No 

 evident hostility forbids association among those devotees 

 of gluttony ; yet they are found invariably separated in 

 flocks of distinct species. An odd dovekee is sometimes 



