156 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



GUILLEMOT, COMMON. 



(Una troile.) 

 Order PYGOPODES ; Family ALCID.E (AUKS). 



Description of Parent Bird. 

 Length about eighteen inches. 

 Bill rather long, straight, sharp- 

 pointed (which easily d i s - 

 tinguishes the bird from the 

 Razorbill), and black. Irides 

 dusky. Head, neck, back, wings 

 (except ends of secondaries, 

 which are tipped with white), 

 and tail dark mouse - brown. 

 COMMON GUILLEMOTS. Lower part of throat, breast, 

 and belly white. Legs and feet, which are 

 webbed, brownish black. 



The female is rather smaller than the male. 

 Situation and Locality. On ledges and in hollows 

 of cliffs, on the flat bare summits of rockstacks, 

 in suitable places pretty generally round our coasts. 

 Our full-page illustration shows a great number 

 of these birds sitting on their eggs on the 

 Pinnacles at the Fame Islands. How individuals 

 recognise their own eggs in such a vast crowd one 

 cannot imagine. 



Materials. None whatever, the egg being laid 

 on the bare rock. 



Egg. One, very large for the size of the bird, 

 and pear-shaped. The eggs of this species present 

 an endless variety of coloration. Sometimes the 

 ground-colour is white, at others cream, yellowish- 

 green, reddish - brown, pea - green - blue, purplish- 

 brown, and every variety of shade between these 

 colours, spotted, blotched, and streaked profusely 



