THE FOOLISH GUILLEMOT. 569 



mer plumage, with the entire hind and upper parts of body, dark sooty-brown; 

 under parts white; head and orbital region dusky, without white stripes. 



Total length, about fifteen inches; wing, seven and a half; tail, two inches. 



Eab. — Northern coasts of America; Northern Europe and Asia. 



This bird is rather common on our coast in tlie winter 

 months, and is said to breed in small numbers about the 

 Bay of Fundy. As a general thing, however, it passes the 

 season of incubation in more northern localities, and is very 

 abundant on the coast of Labrador, where, on the low 

 islands, it breeds, laying a single egg, like the Razor-billed 

 Auk, on the bare rock or gravel. It is impossible to de- 

 scribe the egg of this species in a manner that will lead to 

 its being distinguished from that of the Murre or Razor- 

 billed Auk. 



Audubon makes the following observations, which are, of 

 course, of more value to the collector than to the student, 

 who has no opportunities of visiting the breeding-grounds 

 of these birds. He says : — 



" The Foolish Guillemot lays only a single egg, which is the 

 case with the Thick-billed Guillemot also. The Razor-billed Auk 

 lays two, and the Black Guillemot usually three. This is confirmed 

 by the fact, that the Foolish Guillemot, which lays only one eo-o-, 

 plucks the feathers from its abdomen, which is thus left bare over 

 a roundish space, just large enough to cover its single egg. The 

 Thick-billed Guillemot does the same. The Auk, on the contrary, 

 forms two bare spots, separated by a ridge of feathers. The Black 

 Guillemot, to cover her three eggs, and to warm them all at once, 

 plucks a space bare quite across her belly." 



One peculiarity which I notice in the eggs of this species 

 and those of the Murre is, that they are generally some- 

 what pyriform in shape : but this is not persistent ; and the 

 same rock may contain a deep-green egg with brown spots 

 and blotches, a light-blue one with hardly any marks, and 

 cream-colored ones, drab, reddish-white, and bluish-white, 

 some with only a few spots and blotches, and others thickly 

 marked. It may also have pyriform eggs, ovoidal, ovate, 



