200 



AUK GROUP 



in the Faroes, while it is likewise common in Iceland, and, on the opposite 

 side of the Atlantic, in Greenland and the neiL,^hbourhood of Baffin Bay. 

 In winter it visits the North Sea and the En^^lish Channel, and in 

 America travels as far south as Massachusetts. From Spitzbergen to 

 Kamchatka and Alaska it is replaced by Mandt's guillemot {U. mandti) 

 which has a larger amount of white in the summer-plumage. In 



Great Britain the black 

 guillemot breeds in the 

 Hebrides, Orkneys, and 

 Shetlands, and locally on 

 the west coast of Scot- 

 land, as well as sparingly 

 on the Isle of Man. In 

 Ireland it breeds locally 

 where the coasts are 

 rocky, more especially on 

 the north and west sides 

 of the island ; but is 

 apparently only found in 

 pairs. It is reported to 

 have formerly bred on the 

 Welsh coast, and at Flam- 

 borough Head, where it 

 is still occasionally seen 

 in summer-dress. The 

 black guillemot is a con- 

 siderably smaller bird 

 than the common species, measuring only 12 or 13 in place of i 7 or 

 18 inches in length. 



In addition to this inferior bodily size, the generally sooty black 

 hue of the plumage, and the conspicuous white patch on the wing, the 

 black guillemot in summer displays an oily green gloss on the feathers, 

 excepting, of course, those of the wing-patch, and is further characterised 

 by the black beak and the vermilion of the sides of the mouth and 

 legs. In winter-dress, which is apparently never assumed by very old 

 birds, most of the upper-parts become barred with white, while the 

 hind portion of the back and the undcr-parts turn wholly white. 

 Young birds are smoky black above, but have most of the wing-coverts 

 tipped with brownish black, the throat and fore part of the neck 

 mottled with grey, and the flanks fringed with brown. The nestling 

 is uniformly sooty black, becoming paler beneath. 



I THE ROWLAND WARD STUDIOS 



BLACK GUILLKMOT (WINTKK), 



