402 



The Plover-like Birds 



the morning and in the evening, the males go flying round and round the island, 

 in great files and platoons, always circling against or quartering on the wind; 

 and they make in this way, during a sustained period of hours at a time, a dark 

 girdle of birds more than a quarter of a mile broad and more than thirty miles 

 long, flying so thickly together that the wings of one fairly strike those of the 

 other; and as they go, they whirl in swift, revolving, endless succession, during 

 the periods just mentioned." Mr. Palmer, w r ho visited the islands more than 

 twenty years after Mr. Elliott, states that his account of these birds is as true 

 to-day as it then was, and after careful observations and computations is of the 

 opinion that in 1898 there could hardly have been less than 9,000,000 birds in 

 evidence. 



Guillemots. Sometimes placed in the same genus with the last, but dis- 

 tinguished as already pointed out by the exposed nostrils, are the Guillemots 



(Cepplms}, of which there are 

 five recognized species. Of 

 these the Black Guillemot, or 

 Sea Pigeon (C. grylle), may be 

 selected for brief mention. 

 Between twelve and fourteen 

 inches in length, it is sooty 

 black throughout, being some- 

 what lighter below, and with a 

 large white patch covering the 

 greater part of the wing-covert 

 area. This species finds a 

 home in the North Atlantic, 

 retiring in winter as far south 

 as the New Jersey coast on 

 the American side and to 

 northern Europe on the oppo- 

 site side. It is ordinarily a 

 rather shy, wary bird, not per- 

 mitting a very close approach, 

 though in Cumberland Sound 



the late Mr. Kumlien found it 

 FIG. 137. Black Guillemot, Cepphus grylle. 



quite tame, yet it was next to 



impossible to shoot one in the water if the bird was watching, as it could dive 

 as quickly as a Loon. It nests in the crevices and fissures of cliffs and rocky 

 bluffs, laying two, or rarely three, large, heavily spotted eggs. It feeds largely 

 on fish. Similar to this but having the under surface of the wings dark in- 

 stead of white, is the Pigeon Guillemot (C. columba) of the Pacific coast of 

 North America. 



The True Auks, found only in the North Atlantic, are represented by three 

 species, each placed in a genus by itself. Two of them, the Razor-bill and the 

 extinct Great Auk, are characterized by a very deep and much-compressed bill, 



