GUILLEMOT. 145 



The Guillemot is ubiquitous on our coasts, being frequent 

 from Burlington to Yarmouth Roads, and thence to Dorset- 

 shire, and so on all round the island. 



This bird has occurred in Oxfordshire, the Hon. T. L. Powys 

 has informed me; one was killed on the Kiver Isis, at Sand- 

 ford, below Oxford, in October, 1840. In the adjoining county 

 of Buckingham, one, a male, was caught in the River at 

 Fenny Stratford, on the 13th. of November, 1852, during the 

 heavy floods which then prevailed; and there was another seen 

 at Simpson the next day. 



In Scotland, they breed in vast numbers on the Island of 

 Ilanda, as also in Sutherlandshire and elsewhere; so they do 

 also on the Fern Islands off the Northumbrian coasts, and 

 at Flamborough Head, in Yorkshire. 



They are equally abundant in the Orkney and Shetland 

 Islands, and the Hebrides. So too in Ireland are they 

 plentiful on all parts of the coast. 



A few formerly bred on the cliffs at Hunstanton, Norfolk; 

 some used to do so also near Tenby, in Wales. 



The Foolish Guillemot is so called because it shews but 

 little apprehension of danger, and allows a near approach. 

 The observations I made on a similar derivation of name in 

 the case of the Dotterel, may be seen in my account of that 

 bird, and they will apply equally to that of the species at 

 present under consideration. 



In the places where these birds 'most do congregate,' numbers 

 sit side by side in rows, 'and when one flies away, all suc- 

 cessively take wing in such regular order that, when seen at 

 a certain distance, they appear as if they were actually strung 

 together; they never take wing in a body, but alwaj's one 

 after another. Again, when they can be seen sitting in a 

 long string on the edge of some clifl*, their behaviour is most 

 amusing, for the birds keep complimenting each other right 

 and left where they sit, and also welcome the new comers 

 by bowing to them, and uttering their call notes, which sound 

 like the words 'serrrrrr, merrrrrr, girrrrrr,' etc' 



These birds are of sociable habits, both as regards their 

 own kind and other species, except, as mentioned presently, 

 in the matter of nidification, so to call it where no artificial 

 nest is made. 



In the eighth volume of the 'Magazine of Natural History,' 

 I wrote some years since — 'I lately happened to have an 

 opportunity of observing a Guillemot diving in very clear 



TOL. VII. L 



