BLACK GUILLEMOT. 83 



more slender bill, and the feathers which form the wiug-spot 

 are pure white without any black on the basal portion. If, 

 however, the identification is correct, Nordenskiold found our 

 Black Guillemot nesting in long. 113° E. ; the naturalist 

 of the ' Jeannette ' observed it in abundance on Bennett 

 Island ; and Mr, Nelson records it as numerous throughout 

 Bering Sea. There it meets with its somewhat smaller 

 congener Urla columha, in which the white wing-spot is 

 divided by a triangular black patch, and the under wing- 

 coverts are sooty-grey instead of white. Another species, 

 Ur'ia carlo, with a stouter and larger bill, no white patch on 

 the wings, and altogether black, except some white loral 

 feathers, inhabits the waters between Japan, Kamtschatka, 

 and Alaska. The distribution of these species is somewhat 

 puzzling, and is complicated by the fact that entirely black 

 individuals have been observed in Atlantic waters (Zool. 

 1878, p. 376) ; and a bird, apparently U. columha, was 

 obtained by Yon Heuglin in the vicinity of Spitsbergen. 



In its nidification the Black Guillemot differs from other 

 members of the family, in that it lays two eggs, generally in 

 crevices of the cliffs, or upon the bare ground under blocks 

 of stone near the water's edge. Saxby says that he has 

 also found them fifty or sixty yards inland, on grassy slopes 

 strewn with rocks, but never in anything like a nest. No 

 competent British ornithologist appears to have found more 

 than two eggs as the produce of the same bird, but Aadubon 

 insists that three are not uncommon in North America, and 

 Mr. Ludwig Kumlien to some extent confirms that state- 

 ment. The egg is white, slightly tinged with green or blue, 

 blotched, spotted, and speckled with ash-grey, reddish- 

 brown, and very dark brown ; average measurements 2*3 by 

 1'5 in. ; and the yolk is of a very deep orange-red colour. 

 The birds return to their accustomed haunts year after year, 

 and both sexes share in the duties of incubation. 



The first covering of the young bird is a greyish-black 

 down, through which its first feathers make their way, and 

 these are mottled black and white. Dunn and Saxby state, 

 from observation in Shetland, that the young of this species 



