GUILLEMOTS 279 



VAlca impennis, by the late Baron d'Hamonville, 

 published in Mem. Zool. Soc. France, 1888. 



An egg of this bird which was purchased at 

 auction by Sir Vauncey Crewe in Feb. 1894, has 

 been since figured by Mr. T. Parkin in a paper 

 on the Great Auk read to the Hastings and St. 

 Leonards Natural History Society in June 1900, 

 and subsequently printed at St. Leonards. 



^ GUILLEMOT. Uria troile (Linnaeus). PI. 26, figs. 16, 

 17. Length, 18 in. ; bill, 1-9 in. ; wing, 7-5 in. ; tarsus, 

 1-5 in. 



This bird, known in Orkney and elsewhere as 

 the Scout^ (see p. 258), may be seen in the tideway 

 of the open sea all round the coast at almost any 

 time of year, but is most conspicuous during the 

 breeding season, when assembling in myriads on 

 the cliff's. During the month of June thousands of 

 eggs of the Guillemot are taken from the cliff's on 

 the coast of Yorkshire. See the descriptions of 

 "egging" given by Messrs. Carter (Zool., 1884, 

 p. 438), and Clarke {Field, Oct. 6, 1900). Mr. E. 

 Drane of Cardiff" has published an excellent series 

 of sixteen coloured plates, in which are shown 

 forty-eight of the more striking varieties of the 

 eggs of this bird, and sixteen varieties of the 

 Razor-bill {Trans. Cardiff Nat. Soc, 1898-99). 



The old birds transport the young before they 

 can fly from the ledges whereon they are hatched 

 to the sea below, by carrying them in the hollow 



1 " In our mother toung named the Sko^it." — Bp. Leslie, 1578. 



