THE BLACK GUILLEMOT, 5 13 



muffled on a dense carpet of moss, before I could secure my 

 object. At last my search was rewarded by nests in con- 

 siderable numbers, and all as nearly alike in location, struct- 

 ure and materials as it is possible for nests to be. A few 

 feet from the ground and against the trunk of an evergreen 

 tree, it was composed, externally, of various kinds of mosses, 

 including a few fine sticks, weed-stems, and rootlets, and 

 was lined with fine grasses well bleached; so that, outside, 

 the nest was as green as a bunch of fresh mosses, and the 

 inside was light-brown. The eggs, some .87X.63, are light 

 bluish-green, specked with brown. About the Mud and Seal 

 Islands, dense fogs prevail almost continually throughout 

 the summer. This excessive moisture, so productive of 

 mosses, causes the moss in the walls of the Thrushes' nests 

 to grow; hence, the nests of previous years, well protected 

 from the weather by the dense evergreens, become elegant 

 moss-baskets, finely ornamented within and without with 

 the living cryptogams. I saw a number of such, which 

 looked as if they had grown in situ on the trees. 



Some 7.00 or a little less in length, Bicknell's Thrush, as 

 above found, is uniform deep olive-brown above; the sides 

 of the white under parts being ashy-gray, and the sides of 

 the neck and the upper part of the breast but slightly tinged 

 with buff; while the neck and breast-spots are not so large 

 as in the typical swainsoni. To my eye the bird does not 

 appear so large as the rest of the Thrushes. 



THE BLACK GUILLEMOT. 



My first delight on reaching Seal Island was to study out 

 the breeding of the Black Guillemot {Uria gryile), or Sea 

 Pigeon, or Sea Widgeon, as it is called on the Atlantic. 

 Along the coast, where the rounded boulders are heaped up 

 as if by giant hands in huge windrows above high water 

 33 



