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THE LARGE-BILLED GUILLEMOT. 



/ 

 Uria Brunnichii, Sabine. ^ 



PLATE CCXLV. Adult Male. 



I HAVE never observed this bird on any part of the coast of our Mid- 

 dle Districts, and, although I was told that it not unfrequently occurred 

 about the Bay of Boston, I failed in my endeavours to procure it there. 

 The specimen from which my figure was made was sent to me in ice, along 

 with several other rare birds, from Eastport in Maine. I received it quite 

 fresh and in excellent plumage, on the 18th of February 183S. It had 

 been shot along with several other individuals of the same species while 

 searching for food in the waters of Pasmaquody Bay, which were then 

 covered with broken ice. Its flight was described by Mr Curtis, who 

 sent it to me, as similar to that of the Foolish Guillemot, with which it 

 associated. No other information was transmitted, excepting that it dived 

 and swam like the other species. I afterwards sent the skin to my friend 

 John Bachman, in whose collection it remains. 



No individuals of this species were observed by my party on our way 

 to Labrador ; and as the Foolish Guillemot was abundant on the coast of 

 that country, I concluded that the Thick-billed Guillemots which visit 

 our east-ern seas in winter, set out for the far north at an earlier period 

 than the others. I am indebted to Mr Hewitson of Newcastle, author 

 of the " British Oology," for a description of an egg of this bird, which 

 is in the valuable collection of the Messrs Hancocks, who procured it 

 from Greenland. It measures 3^ inches in length, by 2^ at its broadest 

 part, and is of a bluish-green colour, streaked and spotted with black or 

 very dark umber. 



Uria Brunnichii, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of United States, p. 424. 

 Uria Brunnicii, Brunnich's Guillemot, Swains, and Richards. Fauna-Bor, 



Amer. part ii. p. 477- 

 Large-billed Guillemot, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 529. 



Adult Male in winter. Plate CCXLV. 



Bill shorter than the head, stout, tapering,~compressed, acute. Upper 



