BRIDLED GUILLEMOT. 119 



Ground-colour greenish, thickly spotted or clouded with 

 brown or chestnut. 



Ground-colour rufous-buff, with large blotches or spots of 

 reddish- brown or blackish. 



Ground-colour almost uniform greenish-blue, without spots. 



Ground-colour bluish or greenish-white, with blackish spots, 

 dots, or scribblings, often confluent round the larger end of the 

 egg, where there is generally a large black patch, often inter- 

 spersed with reddish, the grey underlying markings scarcely 

 visible in this type. ' 



Ground-colour creamy-buff, with black or reddish-brown 

 markings, taking the form of a huge blotch at the large end of 

 the egg ; or with scribblings and spots universally distributed 

 over the surface, the grey underlying spots being very much in 

 evidence. Axis, 3 -0-3 -5 inches; diam. i -55-2-1. 



II. THE BRIDLED GUILLEMOT. URIA RINGVIA. 



Uria ringvia, Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl. i. p. 295 (1787). 

 (Plate CVIL} 



Adult in Summer Plumage. Similar to U. troile, but distin- 

 guished by the white eye-ring and the white line which runs 

 from behind the eye down the crease which skirts the hinder 

 edge of the ear-coverts. Total length, 15 inches ; culmen, 1*9 ; 

 wing, 7-6; tail, 2-0; tarsus, 1-25. 



Adult in Winter Plumage. Similar to the winter plumage 

 of U. troile, but distinguished by the white line behind the eye, 

 which is retained in the winter plumage. 



Characters. Many ornithologists consider the Ringed Guille- 

 mot to be a mere variety of the common species, but I cannot 

 quite understand the reason for this conclusion. If the Ringed 

 Guillemot inhabited a perfectly distinct area, I believe that no 

 one would hesitate to consider it a well-marked form, but as it 

 is, on the contrary, found among the colonies of the ordinary 

 Guillemot of our shores, there is some hesitation in recognising 

 it as a distinct species. To me the characters appear suffi- 

 ciently well marked, the white ring round the eye and the white 

 streak along the crease above the ear-coverts distinguishing 

 the Bridled Guillemot from the ordinary U. troile. Seebohm 



