JAMES BAY TO RIVER ABBITIBBE 149 



noticed, though in sparse numbers, and keeping strictly 

 aloof from the other species. This was of a very dark or 

 blackish colour beneath, while the first kind was white 

 below, as high as the throat. It was much smaller than 

 the common guillemot, and was probably a variety of 

 Uria grylle, differing but little from stuffed specimens of 

 that species which I have examined. No guillemots were 

 seen on the flat coast about Fort Severn, or inland on the 

 rivers. 



The rock mentioned seemed to be a favourite breed- 

 ing-place of the common guillemot, for it was covered 

 with their young, most of which took to the water, and 

 swam away rapidly towards the shore. The breeding 

 season appeared to be already well advanced, but there 

 were still a number of eggs unhatched, some with young 

 birds in them, some fresh enough to be eaten. They 

 were not particularly rank in taste, as sea-birds' eggs 

 usually are. They were larger than those of a hen, pear- 

 shaped, and here did not differ so much in colour and 

 marking as guillemots' eggs are said usually to do. The 

 bulk of them were of a pale rosy buff in ground colour, 

 blotched with purple-black, over grey and greenish under- 

 markings. Some were blotched with dark brown ; others 

 looked as if they had been smeared with ink. 



The eggs were scattered about all over the top of the 

 rock, which was about thirty feet high, singly and in 

 clusters. The birds, I believe, lay only one each, so 

 many must lay close together. Probably there were 

 (with those which escaped) fifty times as many young 

 birds as eggs. 



Amongst the gulls the following were clearly recog- 

 nised, if not actually procured : the fulmar petrel, 

 Fulmarus glacialis, not seen on the flat coasts to the 

 westward ; a skua, believed to be Stercorarius pomato- 

 rhiniLS, scanty in numbers, and also not seen westward ; 

 the kittiwake, seen in immense numbers; a gull very 

 like the Lams argentatus of Europe, and probably a 



