72 ALCID^. 



Guillemot gets to a certain size, it manages to climb upon 

 the back of the old bird, which conveys it down to the ocean. 

 Having carried a good telescope with me, through it I saw 

 numbers of young Guillemots diving and sporting on the 

 sea, quite unable to fly ; and I observed others on the 

 ledges of the rocks as I went down among them, in such 

 situations that, had they attempted to fall into the waves 

 beneath, they would have been killed by striking against 

 the projecting points of the intervening sharp and rugged 

 rocks ; wherefore I concluded that the information of the 

 rock-climbers was to be depended upon." Mr. Maclachlan, 

 however, asserts that the young bird is grasped by the wing, 

 near the shoulder, and is not, as a rule, carried down on the 

 back of the parent. The cry of the young Guillemot is zvillock, 

 willock, whence its local name, and the same is probably the 

 origin of the French-derived appellation. Guillemot, for the 

 adult : a term seldom employed by the fishermen and cliflf- 

 men, excepting when speaking to strangers. It is, strictly 

 speaking, a Breton word ; and as * Gwillim,' we find the 

 name in Welsh. In England the commonest is the ono- 

 matopoetic ' Murre,' from the murmuring noise of the assem- 

 bled multitudes at their breeding-haunts ; whilst with mere 

 fishermen the bird is more frequently known as ' Scout,' 

 perhaps from its short or ' cutty ' tail ; also as ' Marrock,' or 

 'Marrot.' By the end of August, or early in September, 

 both parents and ofi"spring have quitted the rocks for that 

 year, and for a time remain both night and day on the open 

 water, far from laud, till the circle of seasons induces another 

 visit to the rocks. 



The Common Guillemot breeds in vast numbers in the 

 Faeroes, Iceland, Norway up to the North Cape and round it 

 to the Vai'auger fjord ; and, owing to the influence of the 

 Gulf Stream, as far north as Bear Island ; but the record of 

 its occurrence in Spitsbergen appears to be an error, the only 

 species found there being Brlinnich's Guillemot. With the 

 exception of Bornholm, it can hardly be said to have a breed- 

 ing-place in the Baltic ; there is a colony on Heligoland ; 

 and many exist on the northern and western coasts of France. 



