BRUNNICH'S GUILLEMOT. J 47 







few brownish feathers on the top of the head ; tarsi and toes yellowish-olive. Mr. 

 Grabham obtained from a man, who found them the same day, a Ringed Guillemot 

 and another Briimiich's Guillemot, very like, but not so large as, his Filey 

 specimen. It measured i8'75 inches; wing 7-75 inches; and had a very distinct 

 white line on the edges of the upper mandible, beginning behind the nostrils, 

 whereas in the Filey specimen it began in front. The tarsi and toes were 

 yellowish-olive, webs dirty brown. In a P.S. to his note, Mr. Grabham wrote : 

 " Since last writing to you I have seen a Ringed Guillemot got here, the ordinary 

 chocolate-brown colour mine [mentioned above], as I told you, was pure black 

 with a very distinct white line on the edge of the upper mandible. Is there a 

 ringed variety of the Brttnnich's Guillemot ? It was very far gone, and sadly 

 knocked about, but I have managed to preserve the head and neck." This is a 

 very interesting observation, because if there is a ringed variety of Brtiuuich's 

 Guillemot, the fact would make it certain that the so-called Ringed Guillemot is 

 really only a variety and not a good species. 



The light, bright- coloured feet of these birds is worthy of note ; but it must 

 be remembered that two of them might have been dead for some days when found, 

 and that the colours of these parts change very soon after death. The huge size 

 of one example is also noticeable, far exceeding the measurements given by authors. 

 Continuing the subject in the "Zoologist" (p. 230), Mr. Grabham describes his 

 ringed variety of this bird, as having the bill short and stout, and the white line 

 most distinct. " The bird was very black on the upper parts, the white on the 

 throat ran up to a point, and the tarsi and toes were of the Brliunich type." 



As a breeding species Briinnich's Guillemot goes very far north, and its 

 further southward extension is probably confined to the east coast of British 

 North America. It breeds in Northern Iceland, Jan Mayen Island, Spitsbergen, 

 Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, and eastwards along some portion of the arctic 

 shores of Asia, meeting with a form described as subspecifically distinct (U. arraj . 

 In Greenland it breeds (north of latitude 64 H. Saunders) abundantly, and on 

 the American Continent, in the North Atlantic, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 northward, and on the shores of the Polar seas. In the North Pacific the present 

 form meets that already alluded to, which does not exhibit " the extreme of short- 

 ness and stoutness" in the bill, found in the Atlantic form, although it is 

 unquestionably of the ''thick-billed" species (Coues). 



During the Arctic Expedition of 1875-6, Col. H. W. Feilden observed two 

 individuals of this Guillemot as far north as Buchanan Strait (lat. 79). He 

 regarded the north water of Baffin Bay as the limit of its northern breeding 

 range in that direction, and doubted if there are any breeding haunts of this species 



