BLACK GUILLEMOT. 155 
Some, says Montagu, used to build near Tenby, in Wales. 
Pennant, in like manner, relates that in his time the species 
had several breeding-places along the coasts of the Principality. 
It is altogether a marine bird, and is scarcely ever seen 
on land, except for the purpose of incubation. 
These Guillemots are by no means shy, and may be taken 
off their eggs with the hand. They associate in a friendly 
manner among other species as well as among themselves. 
They are readily tamed. The male and female appear to be 
much attached to each other. 
This bird is strong and able on the wing, flying at a low 
elevation; so it is also, in its way, in diving, using its pinions 
below the surface, as if in flight in the air. ‘The Black 
Guillemot,’ says Macgillivray, ‘sits lightly on the water, paddles 
about in a very lively manner, dives with rapidity, opening 
its wings a little like the other species, and moves under 
water with great speed.’ They appear to be able to keep 
underneath for about two minutes. 
They feed on small fish and crustacea, sea-insects, and 
worms. 
The note is said to be soft. © 
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 erevice 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 or sixty 
feet above its surface. The Black Guillemot resorts annually 
to the same holes.’ 
The eggs are two in number, and of a white colour, with 
