94 



BLACK GUILLEMOT. 



SPOTTED GUILLEMOT. 

 COMMON SCKABER. GREENLAND DOVE. 



PLATE CCVITI. 



Uriel gnjlle, . . . Pexnaxt. Montagu. 

 Cephus grylle, . . . Flejiing. 



This species pairs about the middle of March, and 

 the eggs are laid in the beginning or more usually 

 by the middle of June. They are hatched in twenty- 

 four days. The bird sits very close, so as to be easily 

 taken on the eggs. Two or more couples have been 

 known to lay under one piece of rock. 



The bare earth, or rather the bare rock, or a crevice 

 in it, is the only bed sought for by this species, for 

 the purpose of nidification. Mr. Hewitson writes as 

 follows: — "On some of the islands which present a steep 

 precipice to the sea, they make use of holes or crevices 

 in the rocks, in which the eggs are laid at various 

 distances from the mouth of the hole — from one to two 

 feet, which is most usual, to three or four. On other 

 islands less precipitous, it deposits them in cavities 

 under or between fragments of rock and large stones, 

 with which the beach is strewed. In one place several 

 pairs rear their young ones in crannies between the 

 stones which form the ruins of an old wall, on the 

 top of a single rock at sea, and at an elevation of fifty 



