PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 3 



zone at the big end, with rich chocolate-brown or black. In some cases the mark- 

 ings are so numerous that they obscure the ground-colour altogether, while in rare 

 cases a bluish green ground tint is observed. The interior of the shell looks greenish 

 when held up to the light, while in guillemots' eggs the corresponding colour is 

 yellowish white, except when the shell is coloured blue-green. (PI. F. ) Average size of 

 100 eggs, 2-95 x 1*86 in. [75- x 47 '4 mm.]. The breeding season on our coasts begins 

 a little earlier than that of the guillemot : probably the second to third week of May 

 is the average time, but in the high north not till a month later. Although only 

 one brood is normally reared during the season, a second and third egg is usually 

 laid if the first is destroyed. Incubation is performed by both sexes, and, according 

 to W. Evans, lasts 30 days : while F. G. Paynter observed it for 25 days. [F. c. B. J.] 

 5. Food. Chiefly small fish and crustaceans. The species drinks salt water. 

 The young are fed by both parents on small fish. [F. B. K.] 



GUILLEMOT [Una troile (Linnaeus). Scout, willock, willie, murre, 

 tinkershere ; eligoog (S. Wales) ; longie (Shetlands) ; stronnag (Isle of 

 Man). French, guillemot a capuchon ; German, Schmalschnabel-Lumme ; 

 Italian, uria\. 



i. Description. The guillemot is to be distinguished from its congeners by 

 the relatively long slender bill, which is without grooves or markings of any kind. 

 (PI. 94.) Length 18 in. [457'19 mm.]. The sexes are alike. There is a distinct 

 summer and winter plumage. In the summer dress the upper parts, including the 

 head and neck, are of a dark slate-grey, but the fore-part of the head and throat 

 and of the fore-neck have a decided tinge of smoke-brown. As the season advances 

 the brown hue increases, the slate-grey assuming a brown tinge also. The second- 

 aries are tipped with white, forming a bar across the wing. The lower part of the 

 fore-neck and the rest of the under parts are white, but the uppermost flank-feathers 

 are slate coloured. In winter the sides of the head, throat, and upper part of the 

 fore-neck are white, but the white on the side of the head is interrupted by a dark 

 triangular slate-coloured patch extending from the eye backwards above the ear- 

 coverts. The young in its first (protoptyle) plumage has the crown and back of 

 the neck dark brown relieved by yellowish white hair-like rami ; the back dark 

 brown, the sides and front of the neck dull white with numerous distinct but narrow 

 stripes of dull black. The breast and abdomen are white. The succeeding mesop- 

 tyle plumage (which has been mistaken for a true teleoptyle dress) is coloured like 



