COMMON GUILLEMOT 483 
of the Auk-Family, afford a spectacle most interesting and 
at the same time familiar to many. Like their congeners, 
these birds desert the cliffs in early autumn, at which 
season young and old betake themselves to the open sea. 
Guillemots, especially when immature, seem unable to 
cope with raging winds and high seas, and large numbers 
are frequently destroyed and washed ashore after a hurri- 
cane. Such birds may be frequently found along the beach, 
but in addition one comes across not a few, victimised by 
the gun which can be proved by examination, in many 
cases being left by the ‘sportsman’ to die a lingering death 
on the waves." 
Though differing in size, in the shape of the head and 
beak, in the colour of the back and wings, and in other 
external characters, from the Razorbill, the two species are 
much alike in their general habits of life, and in their 
movements. 
Flight.—It is quite a common sight to see ‘ wisps’ of 
Guillemots—perhaps a dozen or so together—flying with 
rapidly-beating pinions along the surface of the open sea; 
I have seen them settle and bunch together on the water, 
and then disappear under the waves almost simultaneously. 
At other times on alighting they scatter far and wide, 
appearing like dark dots riding on the breakers. The to 
and fro movement between cliff and sea is rapidly executed, 
yet this species appears to move less buoyantly in the air 
than the Razorbill, the wings of the former being smaller 
proportionately, and less strongly built than those of the 
latter. Under water the Guillemot can propel itself with 
great speed by means of its wings. 
‘Tt seems a pity that the Common Guillemot has become reduced 
in numbers on the English coast owing to the wholesale way in which it 
was persecuted annually, prior to the passing of the Sea-Birds Preserva- 
tion Act (32 & 33 Vict. cap. 17). The slaughter which went on day after 
day during the breeding-season, ‘“‘on the cliffs of the Isle of Wight, 
near Flamborough Head, and at such other stations frequented by this 
species and its allies the Razor-bill and Puffin, and the Kittiwake-Gull, 
as could be easily reached by excursionists from London and the large 
manufacturing towns, was in the highest degree brutal. No use what- 
ever could be made of the bodies of the victims, which indeed those 
who indulged in their massacre were rarely at the trouble to pick 
out of the water; the birds shot were all engaged in breeding; and 
most of them had young, which of course starved through the destruc- 
tion of their parents, intercepted in the performance of the most sacred 
duty of nature, and butchered to gratify the murderous lust of those who 
sheltered themselves under the name of ‘ sportsmen ’” (Newton). 
