456 ALCAIXE. 



have been killed by striking against the projecting points 

 of the intervening sharp and rugged rocks ; wherefore I 

 concluded that the information of the rock-climbers was 

 to be depended upon." In further proof of the truth of 

 their statement, I may mention that I have seen on the sea, 

 at the base of the very higfc. cliffs at the Isle of Wight, be- 

 tween the needle-rocks and Freshwater Gate, the young 

 of the Guillemot and Razorbill so small, that they could 

 not have made the descent by themselves from the lofty 

 site of their birth-place without destruction ; yet these 

 little birds knew perfectly well how to take care of them- 

 selves, and at the approach of a boat would swim away, 

 and dive in various directions like so many Dabchicks. 

 By the end of August, or early in September, both 

 parents and offspring have quitted the rocks for that 

 year, and for a time remain both night and day on the 

 open water, far from land, till the circle of seasons in- 

 duces another visit to the rocks. 



This species remains also about the rocks and bays of 

 Orkney and Shetland all the year, and has been found in 

 summer in various parts of Scandinavia, at the Faroe Is- 

 lands, Iceland, Greenland, in the Arctic Seas as far north 

 as Nova Zembla, Spitzbergen, and by Sir Edward Parry, 

 and Sir James C. Ross, when on their perilous journey 

 northward over the ice, as high as latitude 81. East and 

 south-east of England the Common Guillemot is found on 

 the coasts of Holland and France ; it is not included 

 among the birds of Nice or Italy, by M. Risso or Savi. 

 Prince Charles Bonaparte, in his catalogue of the birds 

 found at Rome, only considers its occurrence there as ac- 

 cidental, and it very rarely appears so far south as the Me- 

 diterranean. 



These birds have a partial moult in the spring, besides 

 the entire moult in autumn, and while changing the wing- 



