BLACK GUILLEMOT. NATATORES. URIA. 427 



Guillemot. And this appears still more evident from the 

 note at the bottom of the same page, in which (after advert- 

 ing to the figures of the Lesser and Spotted Guillemots in 

 the second volume of PENNANT'S British Zoology, Plate 88.) 

 he observes, " Ces sont des Guillemots proprement dits; au 

 contraire TAlca Alle, Penn. Br. Zool. 2. pi. 82. f. 1, et Al- 

 bin 1. pi. 85, oppartient aux Cephus? Dr FLEMING, how- 

 ever, has appropriated this generic term to the Black Guille- 

 mot, making the distinction between it and Uria to consist 

 in the want of a terminal notch in the upper mandible ; but 

 as this character does not appear to be constant, having seen 

 some specimens of the present bird with the notch, though 

 not so fully developed as in the Foolish Guillemot, I have 

 retained it in the situation where it was originally placed by 

 Dr LATHAM. In the northern parts of Scotland and its 

 Isles this is a numerous species, but becomes of rarer occur- 

 rence as we approach the English coast, where indeed it is 

 but occasionally met with ; and although MONTAGU has men- 

 tioned it as resorting to the Farn Islands, and Mr STEPHENS 

 has repeated the same, I can safely assert that this has not 

 been the case for the last twenty -five or thirty years, having 

 been in the habit of visiting this group of islands almost an- 

 nually during that period ; and, had it been a visitant, I feel 

 confident it could not have escaped my observation, or that 

 of the keepers of the light-house who reside there. It cer- 

 tainly breeds, though in a very small proportion, upon the 

 Isle of May, at the mouth of the Frith of Forth, but is not 

 found in large congregated numbers till we reach the vicinity 

 of the Orkney and Shetland Isles. In these parts it is resi- 

 dent throughout the year, never migrating to the same ex- 

 tent as the preceding species and the Razor-bill Auk. Its 

 habits are very similar to those of its congeners, and it is 

 rarely seen upon land, except for the purposes of incubation. 

 It breeds in the crevices or on the ledges of rocks, from Incuba- 

 whence it can readily drop into the water or get upon wing, 

 and lays a single egg, of a greyish white, speckled with 

 2 



