THE FOOLISH GUILLEMOT. 291 



head is, however, much produced, and its bill pointed, so that 

 it rows along the surface, or glides through below, with very 

 considerable velocity. The bill is black externally, and orange 

 in the inside, and it appears twice as long when opened as 

 when closed. The reason of that is, the feathers upon the 

 membrane which covers the nostrils. These are continued 

 to the middle of the gape, so that while the bill is only an 

 inch and a half from the feathers at the apparent base of the 

 upper mandible, it is three inches from the tip to the gape. 

 The head, neck, and throat, upon which the feathers are 

 remarkably smooth, and close as well as thick, are of a dull 

 blackish brown. The remainder of the upper part brownish 

 black, the primary quills paler at the base, and the secon- 

 daries with some white at the tips. The whole of the under 

 part pure white, extending upwards on the fore shoulder 

 round the turn of the closed wing. The colours now men- 

 tioned are those of the summer or breeding plumage ; the 

 only difference in the external appearance of the sexes 

 being that the female is smaller than the male. In winter, 

 the blackish brown fades to white on the front of the neck, 

 the throat, chin, and cheeks, but with occasionally a few dark 

 streaks remaining on the latter, and in the progress of the 

 change the changeable part appears more or less mottled. 

 The black on the rest of the upper part at the same time 

 fades to a dull blackish grey ; so that, if we were to judge 

 from colour alone, the summer and winter dresses would 

 appear to be different birds. There is another circumstance 

 that sometimes helps to increase the confusion. The young 

 have the winter plumage ; and they have it before the old 

 ones have put off the livery of summer, so that it is pos- 

 sible to find both males and females in each of the different 

 plumages at the same time. 



There seems a sort of anomaly about the migration of these 

 birds ; they are said to move north at the season when most 



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