BLACK-AND-WHITE BIRDS. ' 33 



open ledges, and the Razorbill in the securer crannies 

 and hollows of the rocks. After the breeding season 

 the birds take to the open sea, returning to the old 

 breeding-site in the following spring. 



RAZORBILL— 17 inches; massive black bill like a razorv^ 

 head, crossed by thin, white, curving line at the centre ;, 

 Avhite line from base of upper mandible to the eye. 



PUFFIN — 13 inches ; massive tri-cbloured bill ; white face ;' 

 bright-red legs. 



BLACK GUILLEMOT — 14 inches ; entuely black save a 

 solid white patch on the wing. Breeds on the cliffs of 

 the west coast of Scotland and of the north and west 

 coasts of Ireland. Much smaller than the Common 

 Guillemot, but similar in its habits. Eggs, 2, bluish or 

 greenish Avhite, spotted with ash-gray and various shades 

 of brown, and placed in crevices in cliffs or on the ground 

 among boulders (plate 136). 



PUFFIN.— Plate 17. 13 inches. Crown, upper' 

 parts, and throat-band black ; white owlish face ; 

 under parts also white; massive, tri-coloured bill, 

 front half bright red, thin yellow stripe across the 

 middle, and broad bluish band at base ; legs and 

 webbed feet bright red. Summer migrant. 



Egg". — 1, dull whitish, with a few indistinct pale- 

 gray and pale-brown spots and blotches ' showing 

 through ' the surface ; 2"25 x 1"6 inches (plate 123). 



Nest. — None, the egg being placed in £he fissure 

 of a cliff, or down a burrow in the turf- cap above 

 the cliff, the burrow being that of an expropriated 

 rabbit or made by the bird itself. 



Distribution.^ — General around the coasts of the 

 British Isles where suitable sites occur, but sparsely 

 from the Isle of Wight to Cornwall, and on the 



