i43 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



north of Cape Alexander. Dr. Nansen shot an example, in June, 1895, to the 

 north-east of Franz Josef Land, in lat. 82° 19' N. 



Where the vast numbers of Briinnich's Guillemots, which are bred in the 

 great " loomeries " of the far north, betake themselves to in the winter is a 

 mystery. This species is not by any means a regular winter visitor even to the 

 northern coasts of Norway, while the reported occurrences on the coast of Europe 

 further south are very few ; Mr. Howard Saunders mentions a specimen taken in 

 France, near Havre, but, according to Gatke, it has never occurred at Heligoland, 

 that mighty junction of the great system of migration- wa}'s, where so many strayed 

 birds put in an appearance. On the Atlantic coast of America its winter range 

 extends to the Middle States. In Ontario it was almost unknown as a straggler, 

 until the winter of 1893-4, when about fifty were captured on Lake Ontario. 

 Others have been reported from Toronto, in December 1894 (about the time several 

 birds visited this country), and I have a skin of a bird stated to have been 

 procured there in December 1895. It would appear that this species wanders out 

 of its usual winter quarters in certain seasons only. 



In its habits this species resembles the Common Guillemot. Colonel Feilden, 

 who with considerable trouble, managed to land at the vast " loomery " in the 

 great cliffs at Sanderson's Hope (a thousand feet in height), and crawl to some 

 of the ledges of red gneiss, along which the eggs were deposited, remarks : — " The 

 eggs of Briinnich's Guillemot show quite as much variation in colour as those of 

 Alca troile, and quite as beautiful ("Zoologist," 1878, p. 381). Mr. H. J. Pearson 

 found a large colony breeding in Novaya Zemlya. He describes a series of eggs 

 taken in Novaya Zemlya thus : — " The series show great variety in colour and size. 

 In colour they closely resemble a selected collection of the Common Guillemot, and 

 pass from pure white to the browns of the Razorbill, and every variety of yellow 

 and blue- greens, some being very handsomely blotched with black." 



Briinnich's Guillemot has a shorter bill than our bird, and the bill is proportion- 

 ately (though often not actually, except at the extreme base, when the dilated cutting 

 edges of the upper mandible increase the width considerably) higher and thicker 

 or wider. The hinder part of the cutting edges of the upper mandible are con- 

 siderably dilated, and in fully adult birds form conspicuous ribs of light bluish- 

 grey. Bill, generally, blackish horn, gonys and tip somewhat paler and browner. 

 Sides of the face below the eye, lores, chin, throat, sides of the neck and front 

 of the upper part deep chocolate-brown. Rest of the upper parts black or brownish- 

 black, darker than in the Common Guillemot, glossed, especially on the upper 

 part of the head, back of the neck (the demarcation between this glossy black 

 and the brown of the face and throat being often very clearly defined) with dark 



