Birds. 3479 



with the others, in about the same proportion as in Hancia. In the Faroe Islands the 

 ringed guillemots struck me as being perhaps in greater plenty than in the North of 

 Scotland, especially on the little rocks at the level of the sea ; of course not breeding 

 in those low situations ; but the common guillemots were always in far greater num- 

 bers than the ringed, aud always mixed with them. Down the stupendous cliffs of 

 these islands, I did not attend so much to the guillemots when such rare and interest- 

 ing birds as the fulmars fully occupied me, but I examined the heaps of broken-necked 

 birds brought up by the climbers for provision; here, if I remember right, the propor- 

 tion was about as one to ten. Of two ringed birds which I dissected in Fugloe, one 

 was a male the other a female. I constantly made inquiries of the people, who are 

 very intelligent, and very intimately acquainted with their birds. They none of them 

 had ever dreamed of the white-eyed birds being of a different kind from the others, 

 but some of them thought they were the males, others that they were the females, — 

 both opinions, as I ascertained, only partially true. In other instances also they never 

 confounded together two kinds of birds. They even recognized the two species of 

 Fjaldmurra — the dunlin and the purple sandpiper. I feel convinced, that if the orni- 

 thologists who have described the two "species of guillemot had had opportunities of 

 seeing them on their native rocks, the idea of their being distinct could hardly have 

 occurred to them. The differences due to age in the razor-bill formerly gave a far 

 more plausible ground for a subdivision of species in its case. Were we to follow the 

 analogy of that species, we might suppose the white-marked birds to be old ones, but I 

 rather incline to the idea that if the distinction is one of age, they are young birds, es- 

 pecially as it is the character of young guillemots of the year to have the most white 

 about them. But had it not been for a private invitation from a gentleman much 

 interested in the subject, I should not have ventured to intrude my opinions upon the 

 readers of the ' Zoologist.' In a question certainly not easy of proof, opinion will 

 always go with acknowledged authorities, and I cannot expect my convictions to be of 

 any use in settling the question. Almost the only proof of which the matter is capa- 

 ble, is perhaps the keeping specimens in confinement, when if the ringed changed to 

 common birds, or vice versa, I suppose every one would be satisfied, on the fact being 

 properly attested ; but if they did not change, unfortunately nothing would be proved. 

 The only alternative would be the marking of wild birds, but without unusual oppor- 

 tunities this method could not be followed out. Mr. Newton's paper is headed " Bri- 

 tish Species of Guillemot," but as no mention is made of Brunnich's, that gentleman 

 or Mr. Newman very probably does not consider it worth mentioning, and in truth, as 

 a British bird, it scarcely is. It certainly does not breed anywhere round our islands, 

 and I could see or hear nothing of it in the Faroe Islands, although it has been men- 

 tioned amongst these birds. Mr. Hancock tells me there is no other species in Baffin's 

 Bay ; but whether it is to be considered distinct, or a local race, I am not sufficiently 

 familiar with the bird to have formed any opinion. In conclusion I may mention 

 that the substance of the above remarks on Uria lachrymans was introduced into a 

 paper by myself on the " Birds of the Faroe Islands," read at the meeting of the Bri- 

 tish Association at Edinburgh, and printed at length by Sir W. Jardine, in his ' Orni- 

 thological Notes.'— «/o Arc Wolley ; May, 1852. 



