BLACK GUILLEMOT. 429 



figure of this guillemot on wing will be found on plate 14 of vol. iv. 

 of Sir William Jardine's 'British Birds,' a great contrast to the 

 figure on the plate immediately preceding it, which is that of a 

 common guillemot flying as languidly as a gorged sea-gull. The 

 breeding places are always situated in rocky crevices, and the eggs 

 are frequently laid on what I have supposed to be rough shingle 

 thrown into these cracks by heavy winter seas. I have never found 

 more than two eggs in a nest, and the young ones appear to remain 

 in the fissure until fully fledged, as I have never seen them on the 

 water in the downy state, like the young of the common 

 guillemot. After leaving the nest, indeed, the old ones appear 

 to leave them to forage for themselves. 



The following notes on the habits of the Black Guillemot as 

 observed at lona and Mull, have been sent to me by Mr Graham: 

 " Though the common guillemot rears but one young one and this 

 bird rears three, yet it is infinitely less numerous, nor is it a 

 gregarious bird, though to a certain extent it is migratory. It is 

 usually found solitary, or swimming in pairs, on the wildest and 

 most rocky parts of our coast, utterly regardless of the dreadful 

 surf tumbling in white cascades off the jagged rocks when the 

 heavy swell of ocean heaves downwards. The Black Guillemot is 

 a very pretty and interesting little bird, quite tame, allowing a 

 close approach by boat. Its plumage undergoes an extraordinary 

 seasonal change, so that in spring and autumn two birds will not 

 be found exactly alike, its colours ranging through every shade of 

 grey, from white speckled piebald to jet black with a shining green 

 lustre. In its nearly pure winter dress the name of Black Guillemot 

 is an evident misnomer, and that of doveky or Greenland dove is 

 much more applicable. It is remarkable that at such seasons birds 

 should be found both in complete summer and perfect winter 

 plumage. I should imagine that the former had been wintering 

 in the south and had never assumed the winter garb. In intensely 

 severe weather in the depth of winter the whitest specimens are to 

 be procured.* The Black Guillemot breeds on all the smaller un- 

 inhabited islands, in holes under the rocks very little above the 

 water mark, whence I have often extracted the little black downy 

 young ones, and have reared them on small fry, for which they are 



* In the first volume of the 'American Naturalist' (p. 53), Mr G. A. 

 Boardman records having found specimens of this guillemot in full black 

 plumage all the winter on the coast of Maine. 



