214 ALCID.E. 



of a commoa one measured at the same time barely an inch. It is much mottled 

 with black and white on the flanks, and very black where that colour prevails." 



Sir William Jardine remarks, that " Brunnich's guillemot is 

 easily distinguished from the common species by the thicker form 

 of the bill, and the greater angle of the mandible, and also by 

 the much deeper tint of the head and neck, and indeed of the 

 whole plumage/' — 'Brit. Birds,' vol. iv. p. 218. 



This guillemot has been met with at the Shetland (Sir James 

 C. Ross) and Orkney islands (MacgilKvray) and on the coast of 

 Caithness."^ 



THE BLACK GUILLEMOT. 



Spotted Guillemot. 



JJria grylle, Linn, (sp.) 

 Colymhus grylle, Linn, (sp.) 



Is found around the coast, and is permanently resident. 



Its breeding-haunts — generally in lofty marine cliffs — are much 

 of the same character as those of the common guillemot, though 

 sites of different kinds are chosen for its nests : both species are 

 ■ often found together at the same locality ; but the black, every- 

 where known to me, in much more limited numbers than the 

 other. It breeds at the places named under the latter species. 

 About twelve pair are said to frequent the Gobbins annually. 

 About Carrick-a-rede I remarked them in June 1842. At Rath- 

 Kn, Dr. J. D. Marshall informs us that — " This bird frequents 

 the southern or Ushet extremity of the island — a place totally 

 devoid of any other sea-fowl — and the shores wliich immediately 

 front BaUycastle, where I found them, in number about tliirty, 

 flying backwards and forwards among the rocks, where they had 



* It is in a list of rare birds — some of them the rarest in the British catalogue — 

 obtained in the county of Caithness by Mr. Eric Sinclair of Wick, and published by 

 Mr. James Wilson, in his ' Voyage Round the Coasts of Scotland and the Isles,' 

 vol. ii. p. 179. 



