COMMON GUILLEMOT. 275 



back. May not the oldest birds lose their back spots 

 altogether and not resume them?" 



On the 23rd of March, 1883, I found one of these 

 birds washed ashore dead on the beach, near Cromer, 

 after a very violent storm (see also p. 271) ; and Mr. 

 J. H. Gurney, jun., tells me that he has more than once 

 seen them dead under similar circumstances. To Mr. 

 Clement Reid we are indebted for the discovery of the 

 fossil remains of this species in the post-glacial deposit 

 known as the "Mundesley Eiver Bed" ("Geological 

 Magazine," March, 1883, p. 97). 



URIA TROILE (Linnaeus). 

 COMMON GUILLEMOT. 



No member of the family of Alcidse, although some 

 species are found at times in considerable numbers off the 

 Norfolk coast, can now be claimed by us otherwise than 

 as a bird of passage, more or less abundant as the food 

 supply is greater or less. In summer the almost cliff- 

 less shores, so unattractive to these rock birds, offer them 

 no inducement to stay,*" and, although guillemots and 

 razorbills are to be found at all seasons, fishing in the 

 deeper waters, it appears certain that those seen in 

 summer are either birds which for some reason have not 

 betaken themselves to the great breeding-places on the 

 rocky headlands of our island,or are merely engaged in 

 procuring food with which they return nightly to their 

 homes, the nearest of which is Flamborough Head, on 

 the Yorkshire coast, a distance of some ninety-eight 

 miles. f 



* Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., suggests that the old name of Foul* 

 ness for the highest part of the Lighthouse Hills, at Cromer, 

 seems to imply that they may have bred there at one time. 



f There is a vague tradition, it can hardly be called more, that 

 the guillemot formerly nested in Hunstanton cliff, say at the com- 

 mencement of the present century ; although this is by no means 

 impossible, the only evidence on the subject I have been able to 

 2 M 2 



