430 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



very clamorous, uttering a querulous impatient cry, unlike the 

 adults, which are mute. When fledged, the young are dingy black 

 above and dirty white underneath; the white speculum on the 

 wing is clouded with black specks; and the legs, which in the old 

 birds are a vivid coral red, are a dull reddish brown." 



The following incidents in the life of a pet tyste", detailed as the 

 "sorrows of an ornithologist," are taken from achapter in Mr Wilson's 

 voyage round the coasts of Scotland and the isles a book which, 

 though now out of print, is well worthy of a place on a naturalist's 

 book-shelves: "We might here [Quendal Bay, Shetland] have ob- 

 tained an addition to our live stock in the shape of a tame cormorant 

 which we found perched contentedly upon the roof of a fisher's hut. 

 But our heart was too full from the recent loss of an ornithological 

 pet of great promise to admit of our running the risk of a second 

 sorrow. We may now mention that while at Lerwick we took on 

 board a live specimen of the tyste", or Black Guillemot (Una grylle). 

 AS it could not feed itself, we kept it at first in a fishing basket, 

 and several times a day pushed various small pieces of fresh fish 

 down its little throat. It soon came to comprehend what we were 

 doing, and as speedily began to do something for itself that is, so 

 soon as it found a morsel between its mandibles, it no longer re- 

 quired a ramrod, but gobbled it down like a voluntary. Thus 

 matters throve for several days, and when we put him one fine 

 morning into a basket-ful of sea-water, he dived, and splashed, and 

 swam, and filled the air around with sparkling gems, and when 

 taken from his translucent bath, he preened, and dried, and be- 

 ducked himself, and became a beautiful bird to look upon. Ere 

 long, he ate out of any one's hand, or dabbled up portions of juicy 

 herring when thrown towards him on the deck. He never became 

 a very alert walker, and this was characteristic of his kind, but he 

 would get upon a good man's knee and stretch himself up upon his 

 hind legs, and flap his little wings, like a penguin, and was the 

 friend and favourite of all the human race. When he desired to 

 leave his basket, he would raise himself upon his hinder end till 

 he was almost as tall as a little spruce tree, and then he would 

 waddle on to the palm of a person's hand, and sit there flapping 

 his wings as if he was flying at the rate of fifty miles an hour, and 

 then he would rest himself on his abdomen, and shut one eye and 

 wink with the other at the sun, and anon rouse himself to eat a 

 hearty dinner, and finally retire to his fishing basket to be out of 



