216 COMMON GUILLEMOT. 



suitable localities, stretching to the northern seas, 

 but decreasing southward, and met with " only as a 

 straggler in the Mediterranean." * It was also 

 met with by the arctic voyagers, far north in the 

 arctic circle. Audubon writes that it is seldom 

 found farther south than the entrance of the Bay of 

 New York, and that countless numbers breed on 

 the islands on the Labrador coast ; his boat returned 

 from one excursion laden with two thousand five 

 hundred eggs, of which he writes, " they afford ex- 

 cellent food, being highly nutritious and palatable, 

 whether boiled, roasted, poached, or in omelets." 



In the adult bird, in breeding plumage, the 

 head and neck are of a hair-brown, the feathers of 

 a very close and smooth texture, and from each 

 posterior angle of the eye they seem to separate and 

 leave a deep distinct line ; the upper plumage is of 

 a duller tint than the head, approaching nearly to 

 clove-brown, some of the feathers on the mantle 

 being tipped with a paler shade of colour; the 

 secondaries have half an inch of their ends white, 

 forming a bar across the wings, and are the only in- 

 terruptions : the under parts, from the neck down- 

 wards, are pure white, the feathers on the flanks 

 being dashed with clove-brown on the outer edges ; 

 the bill is greyish black, the inside of the mouth a 

 rich saffron-yellow; legs and feet brownish black 

 In the dress of the winter, the cheeks, chin, sides, 

 and front of the neck, are white ; a dark streak run- 



* Prince of Canino. 



