THE ZooLoGistT—NOovEMBER, 1872. 3277 
The Birds of the Feroe Islands. By Capt. Henry W. FEILDEN, 
(Continued from Zool, S. S. 3257). 
NATATORES. 
109. Uria troile, Linn. Uria ringvia, Brunn. Common 
Guillemot. Ringed Guillemot. Native name, Lomvia.—Having 
paid considerable attention to these birds, both in Britain and 
Feroe, I am inclined to look upon them as one and the same_ 
species. The two varieties are to be found breeding together 
indiscriminately, and the eggs of the ringed guillemot are as liable 
to difference of coloration as those of the common guillemot. For 
an account of a series of observations made in the Outer Hebrides. 
during the spring of 1870, by my friend Mr. Harvie Brown and 
myself, in reference to this subject, see Gray’s ‘ Birds of the West 
of Scotland,’ p. 426. We there came to the conclusion that in the 
Outer Hebrides the ringed variety was in the proportion of one to_ 
five, and I think that the same estimate would hold good in Feroe ; 
an examination made by me on one occasion of a large number 
that had been killed by the fowlers on the island of Skuoe, gave 
nearly the same result. Wolley remarks that he found the ringed — 
guillemot in Fzroe in the proportion of perhaps one to ten: that 
it lays a similar egg to the common guillemot, as he ascertained in 
several instances, and that it was of both sexes, and not as the 
natives thought, of one sex, some of them saying it was the male _ 
and some the female, and he came to the conclusion that he could 
not see anything to lead him to suppose that there existed a specific 
difference between the two varieties. In the Faeroe Islands the 
guillemot, next to the puffin, is the most abundant of the rock- _ 
birds, and supplies a large proportion of the food of the islanders. 
On the magnificent cliffs of the islands of Skuoe, and Great Dimon, 
it congregates during the breeding-season in countless multitudes, 
and, when sailing underneath these nurseries, the noise made by _ 
the wings of the continuous ascending and descending flights of 
guillemots and puffins is like that of the wind rushing through a 
number of telegraph-wires during a gale. Landt mentions that the 
number of the winged tribes swarming between Great Dimon and 
Skuoe during the summer is incredible, that they almost darken 
the air and stun the ears with their piercing cries, and that two 
people in the same boat cannot hear each other speak. This is 
either an exaggeration, or else the rock-birds must have decreased 
SECOND SERIES—VOL, VII. 3F 
