GUILLEMOT 



197 



England one of the great guillemot-haunts is Flamborough Head, York- 

 shire ; while in Ireland the precipitous limestone cliffs of Moher, in 

 Clare, form the spot where these birds congregate in the greatest 

 numbers in the breeding-season, the Cow Rock, off the Kerry coast, 

 being another famous resort, where these birds collect in thousands. 



With a length of from 1 7 to i 8 inches (the female being rather smaller 

 than her partner), the guille- 

 mot in summer has the upper- 

 parts, inclusive of the head 

 and neck, sooty brown, in- 

 clining to grey on the back, 

 and the under-parts and a 

 band across the open wing, 

 formed by the tips of the 

 secondary quills, white ; but 

 in winter the sides of the 

 head and front of the neck 

 become like the lower sur- 

 face. Young birds resemble 

 the adults in winter, but have 

 smaller beaks and yellowish 

 instead of olive webs to the 

 toes. In the nestling the 

 colour above is chocolate, 

 with white mottlings on the 

 head, the cheeks and throat 

 being white streaked and 

 freckled with black, while 



the flanks are dusky brown, and a white patch occurs on each side 

 of the lower part of the back. 



The habits of the guillemot are so essentially the same as those of 

 its cousin the razorbill, that what has been written in the case of the 

 one will apply almost word for word to that of the other. Like the 

 razorbill, the guillemot spends the greater part of the year on the sea, 

 resorting to the cliffs only for the breeding-season ; when assembled in 

 their thousands, as on the above-mentioned resorts, or on the Fame 

 Islands or Bempton Cliffs, these birds present one of the most wonder- 

 ful and interesting examples of the profusion of bird-life that can be 

 seen anywhere in the world. The eagerness and impetuosity with 

 which a guillemot pursues its prey under water is exemplified by the 

 fact that, according to a writer in the Field newspaper for 1905, one 



GUILLEMOT (WINTER) 



