8 THE AUKS 



white wing-patch is cut into two by a black bar formed by the basal portion of the 

 major coverts, which are exposed by loss of the white, overlying median coverts. 

 Legs vermilion, as in summer. The juvenile plumage resembles that of the adult in 

 winter. But the scapulars are black with a spot of white at the tip of each feather, 

 giving a mottled appearance quite unlike that of the adult, while the white wing- 

 patch is hardly traceable, being obscured by black, which colours the terminal 

 portion of the feathers at this stage. Similarly, black tips to the feathers of the 

 fore-neck, fore-breast, and flanks give a mottled appearance wanting in the adult. 

 Inside mouth blush red, feet and toes deep brown. The first down (protoptyle) 

 dress is of a uniform sooty brown hue. [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. In our Islands this species is confined to Scotland, Ireland, 

 and the Isle of Man, and does not breed in England or Wales. In Scotland it is 

 now absent as a breeding species from the east coast, except in Caithness, but is 

 plentiful in the Orkneys and Shetlands, along the north and north-west coasts, 

 and on the Hebrides, but becomes scarcer in the south-west. In Ireland, accord- 

 ing to Ussher, it breeds locally in small numbers round the coast, but is much more 

 frequent in the north and west of the country. Outside our limits it is known to 

 breed in the Fseroes, Iceland, along the Scandinavian coast up to the North Cape, 

 and also eastward to the Varanger Fjord, in the Kola peninsula and the shores 

 of the White Sea, on some of the Danish islands, and in the Baltic Sea along the 

 southern coast of Sweden northward to Sundsvall at least, on Bornholm, its most 

 southerly breeding-place, the Aland Isles, Karlo, and the coast of Finland in the 

 Gulf of Bothnia. North of these limits it is replaced by Mandt's guillemot, but 

 on the west side of the Atlantic it occurs from Massachusetts to southern Green- 

 land, and breeds from Newfoundland to the Labrador coast as well as in Green- 

 land. Its whiter quarters are in the North Atlantic, and it rarely occurs south 

 of the English Channel. [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. Resident : the winter wanderings of this species appear to 

 be of slight extent, as it is rarely met with in southern English waters. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. No nest is made, and the two eggs are deposited on 

 the bare rocks under boulders at the foot of cliffs, or in crevices of the rocks, and 

 occasionally among ruins. As a rule, the site is low down and not far from the 

 sea, but in the Shetlands it has been known to breed a hundred feet above the sea 

 (Zoologist, 1891, p. 134), while Saunders says it has been known to nest a hundred 

 yards inland. (PI. XL.) The eggs are usually two in number, but three have 

 occasionally been found together, and are whitish in ground-colour, sometimes 



