138 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



to the white line between the eye and the base of the bill of the Razorbill. It 

 is evident from the Newcastle specimen that it is present in the young, although 

 not so clearly defined as in the adult in summer plumage. But from another 

 figure given by Mr. Grieve, viz., that of a bird preserved at Prague, which is 

 more or less in winter dress and, from the furrows on the beak, an older bird 

 than that at Newcastle, but which does not exhibit any sign of the white spot in 

 front of the eye, it appears that just as the white line is absent or almost absent 

 from some adult Razorbills in winter dress, so the white spot in front of the 

 Great Auk's bill may be absent from adult birds in that season's plumage. 



Family ALCIDAL. 



GUILLEMOT. 



Uria troile, (L-INN.) 



THE Guillemot resorts to our coasts for breeding purposes, aud during the 

 rest of the year is found at a little distance out to sea. It may be said 

 to pass the whole of its life, with the exception of a few weeks, on the sea, usually 

 at some distance from the shore. During the few weeks over which the breeding 

 season extends, the Guillemot is a rock-bird, an inhabitant solely of the sea-cliffs 

 and stack rocks. 



It breeds, in suitable localities, all round the coasts of Great Britain and 

 Ireland ; but far the more numerously in the west, and still more in the north, 

 although there are some large and noted colonies on the north-east coast ; on the 

 southern coast of England, breeding colonies have become fewer and smaller 

 within the last half century 



In the Shetland and Orkney Islands it breeds abundantly, and there are 

 stations down the east coast of Scotland, notably a famous one on the Bass Rock, 



