BRIDLED GUILLEMOT. II9 



Ground-colour greenish, thickly spotted or clouded with 

 brown or chestnut. 



Ground-colour rufous-buff, with large blotches or spots of 

 reddish- brown or blackish. 



Ground-colour almost uniform greenish-blue, without spots. 



Ground-colour bluish or greenish-white, with blackish spots, 

 dots, or scribblings, often confluent round the larger end of the 

 egg, where there is generally a large black patch, often inter- 

 spersed with reddish, the grey underlying markings scarcely 

 visible in this type. 



Ground-colour creamy-buff, with black or reddish-brown 

 markings, taking the form of a huge blotch at the large end of 

 the egg ; or with scribblings and spots universally distributed 

 over the surface, the grey underlying spots being very much in 

 evidence. Axis, 3"o-3'5 inches; diam. i-55-2*i. 



II. THE BRIDLED GUILLEMOT. URIA RINGVIA. 



Uria ringvia, Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl. i. p. 295 (1787). 

 {Plafe CVIL) 



Adult in Summer Plumage. — Similar to U. troile, but distin- 

 guished by the white eye-ring and the ^Yhite line which runs 

 from behind the eye down the crease which skirts the hinder 

 edge of the ear-coverts. Total length, 15 inches ; culmen, 1*9 ; 

 wing, y6; tail, 2*0; tarsus, i'25. 



Adult in Winter Plumage. — Similar to the winter plumage 

 of U. froik, but distinguished by the white line behind the eye, 

 which is retained in the winter plumage. 



Characters. — Many ornithologists consider the Ringed Guille- 

 mot to be a mere variety of the common species, but I cannot 

 quite understand the reason for this conclusion. If the Ringed 

 Guillemot inhabited a perfectly distinct area, I believe that no 

 one would hesitate to consider it a well-marked form, but as it 

 is, on the contrary, found among the colonies of the ordinary 

 Guillemot of our shores, there is some hesitation in recognising 

 it as a distinct species. To me the characters appear suffi- 

 ciently well marked, the white ring round the eye and the white 

 streak along the crease above the earcoverts distinguishing 

 the Bridled Guillemot from the ordinary U. iroile, Seebohm 



