£12 ALCID^. 



in the summer of 1848, but was considered too much injured to 

 be worth preservation. 



Attention has been directed only of late years to this bird, 

 either as a variety of the common guillemot, or as a distinct 

 species. .It differs, according to Gould, from the Uria troile in 

 the " white mark which encircles the eyes and passes down the 

 sides of the head." This author names the coast of Wales as 

 frequented by it, to wliicli that of Cornwall, Lincolnshire, York- 

 shire, and Durham have been added in YarrelFs work. Devon- 

 sliire may here be included, as one was procured at the end of 

 January 1848 in Plymouth Sound by John Gatcombe, Esq. This 

 gentleman having remarked the bird as apparently larger than the 

 common gaillemot (though both are described as similar in size), 

 and as swimming in a different manner, followed in his boat, 

 and shot it. Two others have since been obtained there, one of 

 wliich, found dead soon after the first, had assumed summer 

 plumage. In the ' Historia Naturalis Orcadensis,' published in 

 1848, and the 'Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' 

 Club' for the same year (p. 275), it is mentioned as occurring 

 on the Scottish coast. Several are said, in the former work, to 

 have been shot in Orkney, and one, in the latter, at the Bass 

 Eock on July 25, 1840. The boatmen knew of only one or two 

 being kiUed there, but said the species was not uncommon at the 

 Isle of May.-^ 



The best information on this bird that I have seen, and more 

 especially in reference to its distinctness as a species, is that by 

 Mr. Proctor (subcurator of the Durham University Museum), 

 published in Yarrell's work (vol. iii. p. 460, 2nd edit.). It is 

 the result of a visit to the breeding-haunt of the bird at Grimsey, 

 an island about forty miles to the north of Iceland, where the 

 U. lacrymans, U. troile, and U. Bninnichi't were found breeding 

 in their respective quarters : they were distinguished by the inha- 



new series. The letter containing this information was dated February 26, 1846 ; 

 but when the bird had been killed was not stated. 



* Mr. A. Hepbiu'u ; who gives a full description of the specimen obtained. 



