146 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



Family A 



BRUNNICH'S GUILLEMOT. 



Uria bruennichi, (E. SABINE). 



A LTHOUGH this northern species has figured in the British list for many 

 _]L years, its title to inclusion rested, until recently, upon slender and unsatis- 

 factory evidence, the most important of which related to specimens believed to 

 have been procured in Orkney and in Suffolk, and one found dead off the Irish 

 coast. But during the severe weather which was experienced in January, 1895, 

 when so many Little Auks perished on our eastern coast, three or four examples 

 of the " thick-billed " Guillemot were obtained in this country, while an earlier 

 specimen was procured in the same winter, in the previous December, when the 

 weather was yet fair and open. The following particulars of these examples were 

 communicated to the "Zoologist" (1895, pp. 70, 71 and 109) by Mr. J. E. Harting, 

 Mr. Oxley Grabham, and the late Lord Lilford. The first, in order of date, was 

 shot, on the 7th of December, 1894, in North Bay, Scarborough, and taken to 

 Mr. W. J. Clarke, of that town, who forwarded it to Mr. Harting for inspection; 

 and it was exhibited by the latter at a meeting of the Linnean Society on the 1 7th 

 of January, 1895. It measured, in the flesh, 18 inches in total length, wing 8'25 

 inches. The beak was decidedly shorter and thicker than that of U. iroile, and 

 the white line on the edges of the upper mandible, running from the gape to the 

 nostrils, very distinct ; head, nape, and back, pure black, without any brownish 

 tinge ; tarsi and toes dirty orange ; interdigital webs dirty brown. It proved to be 

 a male. 



About the iath of January, a specimen was obtained at Guyhirne, on the 

 Nene, in Cambridgeshire. It was received in the flesh by Mr. Travis, of Bury, 

 and passed into the collection of the Rev. Julian Tuck. It was afterwards 

 examined by Lord Lilford and Professor A. Newton. 



On the 3Oth January, Mr. Grabham picked up another example (a male) on 

 the sands at Filey. It measured I9'75 inches in total length; wing 8^25 ; the 

 beak was longer than that of the Scarborough bird, but more angular and of 

 greater depth. It was as black on the back and neck as that example, but had a 



