346 ALCAD.E. 



striking against the projecting points of the intervening sharp 

 and rugged rocks ; wherefore I concluded that the inform- 

 ation of the rock-climbers was to be depended upon." In 

 further proof of the truth of their statement, I may mention 

 that I have seen on the sea, at the base of the very high 

 cliffs at the Isle of Wight, between the needle-rocks and 

 Freshwater gate, the vounsf of the Guillemot and Razorbill 

 so small, that they could not have made the descent by 

 themselves from the lofty site of their birth-place without 

 destruction ; yet these little birds knew perfectly well how 

 to take care of themselves, and at the approach of a boat 

 would swim away, and dive in various directions like so many 

 Dabchicks. By the end of August, or early in September, 

 both parents and offspring have quitted the rocks for that 

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

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

 visit to the rocks. 



This species remains also about the rocks and bays of 

 Orkney and Shetland all the year, and has been found in 

 summer in various parts of Scandinavia, at the Faroe Islands, 

 Iceland, in the Arctic seas as far north as Nova Zembla, 

 Spitzbergen, and by Sir Edward Parry, and Captain James 

 C. Ross, when on their perilous journey northward over the 

 ice, as high as latitude 81°. East and south-east of England 

 the Common Guillemot is found on the coasts of Holland 

 and France ; it is not included among the birds of Nice or 

 Italy, by M. Risso or Savi. The Prince of Canino, in his 

 catalogue of the birds found at Rome, only considers its oc- 

 currence there as accidental, and it very rarely appears so far 

 south as the Mediterranean. 



These birds have a partial moult in the spring, besides 

 the entire moult in autumn, and while changing the wing- 

 primaries they are said to be for a time wholly incapable of 

 fljo-ht. When killed here in summer the bill is black ; the 



