146 FOOLISH GUILLEMOT. 



ing any very regular order. Sometimes they seem to skim along the sur- 

 face for miles, while at other times they fly at the height of thirty or forty 

 yards. They are expert divers, using their wings like fins, and under 

 water looking like winged fishes. They frequently plunge at the flash of 

 the gun, and disappear for a considerable time. Before rising, they are 

 obliged to run as it were on the water, fluttering for many yards before 

 they get fairly on wing. 



Those which I kept alive for weeks on board the Ripley, walked 

 about and ran with ease, with the whole length of their tarsus touching 

 the deck. They took leaps on chests and other objects to raise them- 

 selves, but could not fly without being elevated two or three feet, although 

 when they are on the rocks, and can take a run of eight or ten yards, 

 they easily rise on wing. 



The islands on which the Guillemots breed on the coast of Labrador, 

 are flattish at top, and it is there, on the bare rock, that they deposit 

 their eggs. I saw none standing on the shelvings of high rocks, although 

 many breed in such places in some parts of Europe. Their food consists 

 of small fish, shrimps, and other marine animals ; and they swallow some 

 gravel also. 



Uria Troile, Lath. Ind. Ornith, vol. ii. p. 796 Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds 



of the United States, p. 424. — Swains, and Richards. Fauna-Bor. Amer. vol. ii. 

 p. 477- 



Foolish Guillemot, or Murre, Nnttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 526. 



Adult Male, in summer. Plate CCXVIII. 



Bill of moderate length, rather stout, tapering, compressed, acute. 

 Upper mandible with the dorsal line slightly curved, the ridge narrow, 

 broader at the base, the sides sloping, the edges short and inflected, the 

 tip a little decurved with a slight notch. Nasal groove broad, feathered ; 

 nostrils at its lower edge, sub-basal, lateral, longitudinal, linear, pervious. 

 Lower mandible, with the angle medial, narrow, the dorsal line sloping 

 upwards, and straight, the back very narrow, the sides nearly flat, the 

 edges sharp and inflected. 



Head oblong, depressed, narrowed before. Eyes rather small. Neck 

 short and thick. Body stout, rather depressed. Wings rather small. 

 Feet short, placed far behind ; the greater part of the tibia concealed, its 

 lower portion bare ; tarsus short, stout, compressed, anteriorly sharp, and 



