334 URIA GRYLLE. 



but the latter are of a richer and deeper tint, like that of red 

 coral, or carmine and vermilion. The general colour of the 

 plumage is black, on the back and wings tinged -with green, 

 on the breast and abdomen with brown. On the wing is a 

 conspicuous patch of white, including the secondary coverts 

 and many of the smaller ; and the axillar feathers and lower 

 wdng-covcrts are also white. 



Female in Summer. — Like the male. 



Habits. — This, I think, is one of the most beautiful of 

 our sea-birds. The lively little creature I have always found 

 to be a kind of favourite in the places frequented by it. Many 

 hundreds of the young have their lives every year sacrificed 

 to the mistaken kindness of children who try to rear them, 

 always without success. I have kept them alive for several 

 weeks, but somehow they never thrived, and I never saw one 

 that attained the age of three months. 



Now, suppose yourself floating on the heavy swell of the 

 Atlantic along the base of a cliff decorated w ith luxuriant 

 tufts of Rhodiola rosea, Silene maritima, and Statice armeria, 

 and inhabited by Guillemots, Auks, and Starlings. Here 

 and there are narroAv cracks, perpendicular and inclined. In 

 most of them, after a shot has been fired, you wdll see one, 

 two, or more, of the Black Guillemots looking down upon 

 you, half afraid to remain, and loth to leave their eggs or 

 young. Another shot is fired, and you see them bounce away 

 on rapidly-moving wings. There, on a shelf, a dozen of them 

 have alighted in a row. Their black plumage, enlivened by 

 the two white wing-spots, and their singular-looking red feet, 

 contrast with the brown rock. You may approach and shoot 

 the half of them if you will, for they are by na means shy. 

 Such are their usual breeding-places ; for they never, like the 

 Auks and other Guillemots, deposit their eggs on the exposed 

 ledges of the cliffs. They differ from them also in laying 

 two or three eggs. I have never, however, obtained them 

 from such places, although I know those who, clinging to the 

 face of the rifted crag, have done so, foolishly, I thought, and 

 at the peril of life ; but I have many times taken them from 



