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. 



Hob. Northern coasts of America ; Northern Europe and Asia. 



This bird is rather common on our coast in the 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 egg, 

 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, 



