COMMON GUILLEMOT. 277 



I have conversed with on this point believe that both 

 g'uillemots and razorbills, during the breeding season, 

 come down from the Yorkshire coast, daily, as far as 

 the Yarmouth E.oads, whence they are seen to return 

 apparently laden with food. It is only after heavy gales 

 that these birds are observed close in shore, riding like 

 corks among the crested billows, and, though here and 

 there some luckless examples are found washed up on 

 the beach, as soon as the storm subsides they are no 

 longer visible from the shore, having returned again to 

 the ' bosom of the deep,' the true home of these perfect 

 divers." 



At the close of the breeding season old birds, accom- 

 panied by their young, appear off the Norfolk coast, and 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., has met with the half-grown 

 young ones at Blakeney as early as the end of July. 



On the approach of winter, guillemots occasionally 

 seek the shelter of the harbours and bays along the 

 coast, and are sometimes driven far inland. Mr. Dowell 

 has known one taken alive on Kelling Heath, and Mr. 

 Frank Norgate tells me that one was caught in the 

 rectory garden, at Sparham, on the 2nd November, 

 1876, as it was "flapping along the gravel path, prob- 

 ably too tired to fly. It did not seem to have any 

 wound or disease." Mr. Newcome has a specimen in 

 winter plumage, killed on the river near Hockwold, some 

 years ago. On December 1st, 1869, a guillemot, a razor- 

 bill, and a grebe were caught in a bird-net on the shore 

 of the Wash, which was intended to intercept the noc- 

 turnal flight of waders, but must have been submerged 

 by an unusually high tide. 



The following extract is from Miss Ainia Gurney's 

 note-book, under date of June 12th, 1839 : — "A Foolish 

 guillemot's egg was found on Cromer beach, and another 

 the following day " (" Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. 

 Soc," ii., p. 22), and other eggs have been found in the 

 shrimpers' trawl-nets off Lowestoft and Lynn.* 



* No doubt many eggs are dropped at sea, and Mr. J. H. 

 Gurney, jun., tells me that when on the Yorkshire coast some 

 years ago, on the 21st March, he was told of six eggs being brought 

 into Bridlington by a trawler who dredged them up. 



