AUK. 315 



bill next the point is red ; that next the bafe blue grey ; and at 

 the bafe is a fort of rifing cere, full of minute holes : the noftrils 

 are a long and narrow flit on each fide, near the edge of the upper 

 mandible, and parallel to it : the irides are grey : the edges of 

 the eye-lids crimfon ; on the upper, a callous protuberance, tri- 

 angular in fhape ; on the under, an oblong one of the fame tex- 

 ture : the top of the head, hind part of the neck, and all the 

 upper parts of the plumage, are black, paffing round the throat 

 in a collar : the fides of the head, chin, and all the parts beneath, 

 are of the pureft white : the legs are orange : in fome birds there 

 is a great portion of a dufky mixture on the cheeks, and a patch 

 of the fame on each fide of the under jaw. 

 Male and female much alike. 



They vary exceedingly, in regard to the bill, according to their 

 age : in the firft year it is fmall, weak, deftitute of any furrow, 

 and of a dufky colour: in the fecond, larger, ftronger, and lighter 

 coloured, with a faint veftige of a furrow at the bale ; but thofe 

 of more advanced years are of vivid colours, and great ftrength : 

 hence thefe birds are fuppofed not to be perfecl, or at leaft not 

 to breed, till the third year, efpecially as not a fingle one has 

 ever been obferved at Prieftholm which had not the bill of an 

 uniform growth *. 



This fpecies frequents feveral parts of the coafts of England ; a Place and 

 few about the rocks at Dover, and the neighbourhood ; great 

 numbers about the Needles, in the IJle of Wight, Beady Head, and 

 other parts j but no where in fuch plenty as at Prieftholm IJle, 

 where they are feen in flocks innumerable. They come to thac 



* See Tour in Wales, p. 252 ; and figures of the different growths of the bill'm 

 pi. 20.— Compare xhsAha Deleta of Brunnich and Mulkr — Pall. Spic. ii. p. 22. 



S f 2 place 



M 



ANNERS. 



