464 ALCAD^E. 



and they were consequently much more difficult to obtain 

 by those lowered down from the top of the rocks. The 

 natives of Grimsey further testified, not in words, but by 

 placing the birds in pairs together, and by separating others 

 when one of each were placed together as a pair, that the 

 Common Guillemot, and the Ringed Guillemot do not 

 breed one with the other, but each sort by themselves. 



M. Nilsson, professor of Natural History at Lund, in 

 his Fauna of Scandinavia, considers the Ringed Guillemot 

 only as a variety of the Common Guillemot; but as it 

 appears that weighty evidence is in favour of its being a 

 species, rather than a variety, I have given it a place in 

 this work. 



An adult bird in its breeding plumage, obtained at 

 Grimsey Island, has the beak black, rather more slender in 

 form than that of the Common Guillemot obtained at the 

 same locality ; the irides dark ; all round the eye a narrow 

 ring of pure white, and a line of the same colour about an 

 inch and a half long, passing from the eye backwards and 

 downwards on the neck ; head, chin, throat, upper part 

 of neck all round, lower portion of neck behind, back, 

 wings, and tail dull greyish -black ; tips of secondaries, and 

 all the under surface of the body white ; legs, toes, and 

 membranes brownish-black. The whole length is about 

 eighteen inches ; the wing, from the joint to the end, eight 

 inches. 



Opinions seem fairly balanced as to whether this bird is 

 a species or a variety. 



