452 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



Genus LOMYIA, Brandt. 

 GUILLEMOT. 



Lomvia troile (Linnaeus). S.N., i., p. 220 (1766). 



During the summer and breeding season the Guille- 

 mot is very numerous on the coast of Kent, but it is 

 also found all through the winter, though in diminished 

 numbers, by its migration south. 



There is a colony of these birds at St. Margaret's 

 Bay, which is thus described by Mr. J. Briggs : "St. 

 Margaret's Bay is situated perhaps four miles from 

 Dover, near the South Foreland Lighthouse, on the 

 Kentish Coast. It is buried in a deep recess betweeii 

 high and prominent chalk cliffs, and contains a few 

 houses, occupied chiefly by fishermen and the coastguard 

 stationed there for the prevention of smuggling. During 

 the month of May, in the present year (18.52), I paid a 

 visit to this remarkable spot and picked up the following 

 gleanings in Natural History : — 



" On the most inaccessible parts of the cliffs, over- 

 looking the sea, between St. Margaret's and Dover, I 

 found the Guillemot breeding ; but I was told that this 

 bird existed there in much more limited numbers now 

 than formerly. The eggs were found resting lightly on 

 the shelves of the cliffs, without nests ; and I can bear 

 testimony to the truth of the assertions which naturalists 

 have made, that the eggs of this bird vary greatly both 

 in ground-colour and markings. Of the three which I 

 was able to procure, one had its ground-colour greenish- 

 white, and its broad end banded w^ith a ring of deep 



