THE BIRDS OF IONA AND MULL. 255 



not that I ever actually saw tkern do so, as by an insensible deviation 

 right or left they just clear any such obstruction. Of course they may 

 be killed in any numbers, either on their nesting places, where their 

 insensibility to danger has procured them the name of the "foolish 

 guillemot," or when studding the water in countless thousands, where 

 several may be strung at one shot, as they do not offer to dive till 

 approached very near, and their mode of diving is slow compared with 

 the active headers the cormorants take, or the lightning-like disappear- 

 ance of the larger divers. 



They propel themselves under water with their wings, a submarine 

 flight, which commences in the act of diving, as the wings begin to 

 open before the bird leaves the surface, while all other birds dive with 

 their wings tight closed. The flesh of the guillemot is but poor eating. 

 Sussex fishermen shoot them under Beachy Head, where they breed, 

 and make them into pies, under the name of willocks or willies. 



The Bridled Guillemot. 1 

 Norwegian, Sill gripla — the herring gripla. 



This is generally considered a rare bird. Sir William Jardine, in 

 The Naturalists' Library, says there is no recorded instance of the 

 capture of a specimen in Scotland, though later observers declare it to 

 be well known to the inhabitants of the outer isles. The first one that 

 I procured I sent to a bird-stuffer in Edinburgh, who corresponded 

 with Selby, and forwarded it to that eminent ornithologist. He, in 

 his reply, said that it was a specimen of that " unusual bird in Scot- 

 land, the bridled guillemot." It may be more abundant than we think, 

 for the difference between it and the common bird is not distinguish- 

 able until captured, and we did not care to shoot guillemots in great 

 numbers ; but if we killed as many as a dozen in a day we should pro- 

 bably find one lacrymans among the lot. The common guillemot has a 

 mark or division in the close texture of the feathers from behind the 

 eye, extending down the neck ; in the bridled this is further marked 



1 As has been pointed out elsewhere, the average number of bridled birds 



may be taken at from one in six or seven, to one in ten or twelve of the common 

 form. Needless now to insist upon the fact that the common and bridled birds 

 have long been looked upon as belonging to the same species, as indeed is 

 acknowledged amongst the communities themselves. — Ed. 



