OUIl.Li-.MOT3. 



GU1LLKMOTR 



11: i 



In tin- Hritiah Islands they are numerous (among other loealites) in yard*' iliotuuce, ieem to be well aware of the security of the station 

 the Orkneys, on the Bus Rock, the Farn or Fern Isle-i, the cliff* of they have chosen. The great body of the breeding birds arrives 

 Scarborough, the Needles and cliffs of the Isle of Wight, the Ooodeve towards the end of March, or the beginning of April, nt which time 

 Rucks not far from St Ives in Cornwall, and the Isle of Priestholm, ' most of them have acquired the perfect nuptial plumage. I have 



contiguous to the Island of Anglesey, 4c. 



however obtained them much earlier, and when the white upon the 

 throat was only giving place to the pitch-coloured black that distin- 

 guishes them till after the sexual intercourse. At tl.i- time, they 

 often lose so many of their quill -feathers as to be totally in 

 tli.-ht; but these are soon reproduced, and the colonies which had 

 made the English coasts their summer quarters retire to more 

 southern latitude* to pass the winter months. Their place in this 

 country ia but sparingly supplied by a few stragglers from the great 

 bodies that, being bred in still higher latitudes, make the firth* of 



! Scotland and its isles the limit of their equatorial migration." (' lllua- 



' tratious of British Ornithology,' vol. it) 



Much cannot be said in favour of the flesh of the Foolish Guillemot, 

 though the people of Kamtschatku kill numbers of those birds for 

 food. The principal reason however for the attack upon them arisen 

 from the value of their skins ns an article of clothing to the inhabit- 



' ants of those cold regions. The eggs seem to be generally accounted 

 delicacies. 



V. Grylle, the Black Guillemot. Description of both sexes in complete 



i winter plumage. Summit of the head, nape, and all the upper parts, 

 with the exception of the middle of the wings, of a rather deep 

 black ; the wing-coverts forming a large white space, or speculum. 

 Cheeks and all the lower parts from bill to tail pure white ; 

 red.* Bill black ; interior of the mouth and feet bright red. Length 

 from bill to claws about 13 inches. In this state M. Temminck. whose 

 description we have selected, says that V. minor ttriata of Brisson, 

 U. Baltica and U. Grylloida of Briinnich, are individuals in different 

 stages of moulting, passing from winter plumage to that of summer ; 

 that the Spotted Greenland Dove of Edwards ('Glean.,' t. 50) is a 

 very exact figure of a moulting individual; and that the Spotted 

 Guillemot of the 'British Zoology' and Latham ('Syn.') are vai 

 or different states of the autumnal and spring moults. 



Common Guillemot (I'ria Troile). 

 An adult and a young bird of the year. 



The appellation of Foolish Guillemot has been given to this species 

 from its often suffering itself to be taken by the hand or killed on the 

 spot, especially in the breeding reason, rather than quit the cliff it has 

 chosen for its abode. The sea is the favourite resort of these birds when 

 they leave their cliffs, and there they seek their food, consisting prin- 

 cipally of small fish, email marine crustaceans, and small bivalves, 

 living with the greatest facility. They are with difficulty roused to 

 flight Early in April and May, or at the end of March, they begin 

 to assemble on their favourite cliffs in Britain, and lay their single 

 unprotected egg on the flat bare ledge of rock. This egg is generally 

 of a pale green, blotched and stained with black and dark brown 

 (umber). Sometimes the egg is white, with or without a few spots. 

 It is a remarkable sight to see these birds, where they abound, sitting 

 upon their eggs on their rocky shelves, often in line, and BO close 

 that they nearly touch each other. As soon as the young are capable 

 of migrating, which is in August, or by the end of that month, they 

 are said to disappear from our shores. Mr. Selby, whose obervations 

 are always valuable, gives the following interesting account of these 

 birds : " Incubation lasts for a month, and when the young are first 

 excluded they are covered with a thick down, of a blackish-gray 

 colour above, and white beneath. This gradually gives place to the 

 regular plumage, and in the course of five or six weeks from the time 

 of hatching they are capable of taking to the water. During the time 

 they remain upon the rock the parent* supply them plentifully with 

 the young of the herring and herring-sprats, which form the prin- 

 cipal food of this and other species belonging to the A hadtt. Upon 

 the Northumbrian coast these Guillemots breed in great numbers on 

 the Fern Islands, a locality that ha* afforded me ample opportunities 

 of attending to their economy and watching the changes they undergo. 

 They have selected the summit* of three fine isolated pillars, or 

 marae* of ' whinntone' (trap-rock), that rise upwards of thirty feet 

 above the level of the sea. Upon these the rggs are laid a* close as 

 possible, merely allowing room for the birds to sit upon them, which 

 they do in an upright position. The appearance they make in a dense 

 mac* ia curious, and the interest is increased by the number of Kitti- 

 wake* (Lam tridaclylv) which hover around, and which breed in 

 the small aide clefts, or on the projecting angles of the rock; and by 

 the n'sU of two or three Crested or tirreii Cormorants, which, from 

 the unusual confidence they display in continuing to sit up" 

 eggs, even when overlooked from the opposite precipice at only a few 



llUuk Uuillrmot (I'ria Gryltr). 

 An mliilt and a young bird. 



Young of the Year. Throat, breast, and the lower parts, white ; 

 piiniinit of the head, nape, lower part of neck and side* of the breast, 

 blackish, spotted with gray and white ; back and rump of a dusky 

 black, some of the scapulars and feathers of the rump terminated 

 with whitish ash ; wing* black, with the exception of the speculum, 

 which is white, but marked with ashy or blackish stains ; inside of the 

 mouth and feet livid reddish; iris blockish-brown.t In this state 



Temminck savs brown ; but Mr. Gould (' Birds of Europe ') describes and 

 Agures them as red in the iiult. and this we believe to be right. 



t In our copy of Prison the iris U coloured red. In Mr. Gould's ' Birds of 

 Europe ' tbe Iris is brownish, Inclining to olive, and the feet are yellowish- 

 brown. 



