CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE HABITS OF THE BLACK GUILLEMOT. 



WITHOUT being exactly a rare British bird the 

 Black Guillemot* is sufficiently local to merit the 

 appellation of 'uncommon." In Scotland its 

 principal breeding-quarters lie along the north and 

 west coasts, including those of the larger groups 

 of islands, such as the Shetlands, Orkneys, and 

 Hebrides, but it is also found nesting down the 

 eastern sea-board, anyhow, as far south as 

 latitude 58. The same remarks apply, albeit 

 in a minor degree, to Ireland, though there, too, 

 it is most to the fore on the west coast. Its only 

 English haunts are in the Isle of Man, it having 

 long since ceased to breed in Wales, though why 

 this should be so it is hard to say. During winter, 

 however, it is often met with off coasts where it 

 never stops to breed, though on the east and 

 south of England it is or seems to be a rare 

 bird even then. 



It is in spring and summer that the Black 

 Guillemot can be studied to best advantage, since, 

 except at those seasons, it is a thorough lover of 

 the ocean, being seldom seen really close in shore. 



* Uria grylle (L.) 



