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Guillemot (Urin), a genus of diving birds of 

 tin- Auk family (Alcidip), ramMBtod by eight 

 pecies in I In- arctic and north temperate zones. 



The I'ill is in. M|. -lately long, straight, and feathered 



to I lie nostrils; the iVfL UIC tiller lord, tlir liind 



tor l>ein- ab.-ent, and 

 they are completely 

 webbed. The wings 

 and tail are short, 

 and the legs are 

 placed very far hack, 

 so that the bird stands 

 erect. Its walk is 

 awkward, and its 

 flight heavy though 

 well sustained ; but 

 it dives with great 

 agility, using its naif- 

 opened wings to aid 

 its progress. The 

 guillemots breed in 

 large colonieson rocky 

 cliffs, buflchng no 

 nests, but laying 

 Common Guillemot ( Uria troile). their eggs on the bare 



rock, and the male 



shares with the female the laltour of hatching 

 and rearing the young. Their food consists of 

 crustaceans and small fishes. The Common or, 

 as it is often called, Foolish Guillemot ( U. 

 trmlf.), is very abundant on the British coasts. 

 In summer the head, neck, and upper parts of the 

 body are of a dark brown, the under parts white, 

 the bill, legs, and feet black ; in winter the neck 

 and some parts of the head are white or mottled 

 brown and white. The male measures about 18 

 inches in length ; the female is coloured like the 

 male, but is slightly smaller. She lays only one 

 egg, 3 inches in length, which she hatches by hold- 

 ing it between her legs as she sits erect facing the 

 cliff. The eggs are pear-shaped, and vary in colour 

 from pale green to a deep reddish-brown. It seems, 

 however, as if one bird laid the same colour of egg 

 in successive seasons. The Ringed Guillemot is 

 sometimes considered as a distinct species ( U. 

 rimiina), but as it differs from the common guille- 

 mot only in having round the eyes a ring of white 

 continued backwards as a fine line, and as it is 

 never found except where the latter also occurs, 

 most ornithologists now agree in regarding it as a 

 variety. TheJBlack Guillemot (U. grylle) some- 

 times placed in a separate genus (Cepphus) is 

 found in ( ';iitliness ami on the west coast of Scot- 

 land, and is fairly abundant in the Hebrides, 

 Orkney, and Shetland. It is smaller than the 

 preceding species, its length being only 14 inches, 

 and it differs from it in laying two eggs. Its 

 summer plumage is sooty-black, with the exception 

 of white patches on the wing-coverts ; and in winter 

 the head and back have white markings, and the 

 under parts are nearly white. In America U. 

 rjri/llr breeds as far south as the Bay of Fundv ; U. 

 tmile is occasionally found on the coasts of New 

 York. Where guillemots congregate in vast 

 numbers, as at Fhunboronefa Head, scaling the 

 dill's in search of their eggs is a regular profession, 

 and one which requires much skill and courage. 

 Tin- eggs are occasionally used as food, as is also, 

 indeed, the coarse flesh of the bird itself; but they 

 Are chiefly valued for their albumen, of which it 

 is said large quantities are iiM-d in clarifying wine 

 and in the preparation of patent leather. See 

 Howard Saunders, Manual of British Birds. 



l.iiillim. JOHN, heraldic writer, l>om in Here- 

 fordshire, alnmt lf>6f>, was most of his life an official 

 of the College of Arms in London. In 1610 he 

 published The Display of Heraldry, the materials 

 lot which, however, were supplied by John Bark- 



bam (r. 1572-1042), chaplain to the Archbbhop 

 of Canterbury. Guillim died 7th May 1621. 



Guillotine* the instrument of decapitation 



introduced during the l-'n-neh Revolution by the 

 Convention, and named after ite tmppoHed inventor, 

 Joseph Ignace Guillotin, a physician ( liorri 1738 

 died in his led, not, as of ten said, by disown infttru- 

 ment, 1814), who, however, was only the peixm who 

 lii>t pro potted ite adoption. It was erected and 

 lir>t employed to execute a highwayman on the 

 Place de Greve, Paris, 25th April 1792. It i* com- 

 posed of two upright posts, grooved on the inside, 

 and connected at the top by a cross- beam. In 

 these grooves a sharp iron blade, having it* edge 

 cut obliquely, descends by its own weight on the 

 neck of the victim, who is bound to a board 

 laid below. The . 

 invention of 

 machines of this 

 kind is ascribed 

 to the Persians. 

 In Italy, from the 

 13th century, it 

 was the privilege 

 of the nobles to be 

 put to death by a 

 machine of this 

 kind, which, was 

 called mannaia. 

 An instrument re.- 

 sembling the 

 guillotine was 

 likewise employed 

 during the middle 

 ages in Germany, 

 where it has been 

 rein trod uced since 

 1853, and at a 

 later date in 

 France and Hol- 

 land. During the 



16th and 17th centuries a machine called the 

 Maiden, which differed but slightly from the 

 guillotine, was employed in Scotland for the 

 purpose of decapitation ; among its victims were 

 one of Rizzio's murderers (1566), the Regent 

 Morton (1581), and the Marquis (1661) and 

 the Earl of Argyll (1685). Morton is com- 

 monly, but falsely, said to have introduced it, 

 taking the idea from the similar engine at 

 Halifax (q.v.), which was in use till 1650. See J. 

 W. Croker, History of the Guillotine (1853); 

 L'Abbe Bloeme, Notice sur la Guillotine (1865); 

 Chereau, Guillotin et la Guillotine (1871); and 

 Dubois, Recherches historiques et physiolopiqites stir 

 la Guillotine (1881). The name of guillotine is 

 also given to a powerful machine used by book- 

 binders for cutting paper and cropping the edges 

 of books, the blade having an oblique motion. 



Guilty. See CRIMINAL LAW. 



<. II i inarfu's. an ancient and picturesque walled 

 town of Portugal, on the Ave, 12 miles SE. of 

 Braga. Here is the 14th-century Oliveira Church, 

 and there are two noted hot sulphur-springs in the 

 vicinity. Pop. al>out 8205. 



Guinea, the name of a large section of the v e-t 

 coast of Africa, which lirst came into general use 

 in the 15th century. Although the name is used 

 with a different extension by different writers, it 

 is pretty generally agreed that the stretch of coast- 

 lands so designated extends from the mouth of the 

 Senegal, in al>out 14" N. lat., to Cape Negro, in 

 16 S. lat. By conventional usage it is further 

 divided into two parts, Upper and Lower Guinea, 

 the dividing line being taken variously as the 

 equator, the Gal toon, the Ogoway. The states 

 and political territories comprised within this long 



Guillotine. 



