272 ' THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



said to use the feet as well as the wings. In flight its wings 

 beat quickly ; it flies close to the water as a rule, straight and 

 with considerable speed, but finds the same difficulty in rising 

 as other auks, splashing with feet and wings. On rocks it is 

 more agile than the Common Guillemot, often standing on 

 the toes alone, walking well with the body upright. When 

 resting it sinks on to the tarsus or lies prone, the position 

 during incubation. The common Orkney and Shetland name 

 is " Tystie," probably derived from the whistling love-call — 

 Naumann's ist^ ist^ isi, and not from the ** dreary whining cry," 

 as Mr. P. G. Ralfe well describes its normal call. Fish are 

 eaten and brought, one at a time, to the young, but crabs and 

 other crustaceans, hunted for at the bottom or amongst the 

 tangle of submerged rocks, are perhaps its chief food. 



The two eggs (Plate 94) are placed in a crack or fissure 

 seldom at any great height on a cHfif face, or are beneath loose 

 stones in the fallen masses at the foot of a crag and sometimes 

 in a cave. No nest is made. The colour is white or slightly 

 tinted with green or cream, blotched and spotted towards the 

 larger end with brown and lavender; they are laid late in May 

 or in June. The nestling has sooty-brown down, and the 

 young bird a mottled dress of grey, black, and brown, darker 

 than that of the barred winter plumage of the adult bird 

 The white wing patch is splashed with brown, and in the second 

 year brown marks still indicate immaturity. Between the 

 mottled dress and the glossy black of summer or the hoary 

 plumage of winter are a variety of complicated gradations. 

 In the young bird the bill is dusky, and the inside of the mouth 

 duller ; the legs are at first brown. Apparently at all ages the 

 irides are dark brov/n. Saunders gives the total length as 14 ins., 

 but 12 is nearer the average. Wing, 6'5 ins. Tarsus, 1-25 ins. 



