NOTES AND QUERIES. 71 



specimen of Briinnich's Guillemot, which was, shot in North Bay, Scar- 

 borough, on Dec. 7th, and which I had the pleasure of examining in the 

 flesh, °I found, on taking measurements, that the beak of his bird is shorter, 

 but mine is more angular and of greater depth. Mine is as black as his 

 on the back and neck, and very much blacker than a Common Guillemot 

 in summer plumage which I have, but it shows on the top of the head a 

 few brownish feathers. My bird is much larger, and the tarsi and toes are 

 yellowish olive, whereas those of Mr. Clarke's bird I had noted as dirty 

 orange. The white on the neck in both birds runs up to a point under the 

 chin, instead of a rounded arch as in Una troile. On searching for a 

 Common Guillemot, I found a man with two birds which he got the same 

 day (Jan. 30th), one a Ringed Guillemot (of which more anon), and the 

 other a Guillemot, very like, but not so large as, my Filey specimen. Its 

 dimensions were as follows :— Total length, 18* in. ; carpus to end of 

 longest primary, 7f in. ; total expanse of wings, 26 in. Black on the head, 

 neck, and back ; the white on the front of the neck running up into a 

 point, and a very distinct white line on the edge of the upper mandible ; 

 but whereas in the Filey specimen this white line begins iu front of the 

 nostrils and runs back to the gape, in the second bird it begins behind the 

 nostrils. The tarsi and toes were yellowish olive ; webs dirty brown, as in 

 the Filey bird. I am going to preserve them both, as I do all my birds 

 myself, and if they are not Briinnich's, I confess I am very much puzzled, 

 for the only difference I can detect is that Mr. Clarke's bird is shorter in the 

 bill, and the tarsi and toes are a little different in colour, both my birds 

 being larger than his. Of course there is nothing improbable in other 

 specimens of Briinnich's Guillemot turning up after such severe weather 

 and heavy gales as we have had recently ; in fact, it would be curious if a 

 gregarious bird like the Guillemot (if it sought our shores at all) should not 

 come in small flocks, and not merely a stray specimen. As bearing on this 

 point, I do uot know whether Mr. Clarke has told you (he informed me he 

 was going to do so) that he heard from a friend of his in Canada (Toronto, 

 I think) that the three rarest birds he had received this season were three 

 Briinnich's Guillemots, accounted very rare out there. — Oxley Grabham 

 (Scarborough). 



P.S., Feb. 5th.— Since last writing to you, I have seen a Ringed Guille- 

 mot got here, the ordinary chocolate-brown colour— mine, as I told you, 

 was pure black— with a very distinct white line on the edge of the upper 

 mandible. Is there a ringed variety of the Briinnich's Guillemot ? It was 

 very far gone, and sadly knocked about, but I have managed to preserve 

 the head and neck. The large Filey Guillemot, with the white line on the 

 upper mandible, and light legs, I have also preserved. It was an enormous 

 bird, a male. — 0. G. 



