FOOLISH GUILLEMOT. 
37 
cliff. The one single egg is deposited on the bare rock, 
and the shape of the egg, which is very tapering, prevents it 
from rolling off into the sea ; for, when moved by the wind, 
or other circumstances, it only rolls round in its own circle, 
without changing its first immediate situation. 
The food of the present species is small fish, small shell¬ 
fish, marine insects, and bivalve mollusca. 
In confinement it is not possible to keep the Foolish 
Guillemot, since it cannot be well supplied with sea-water ; 
and in fresh-water it rarely remains longer than a couple of 
days alive. 
In the more northern countries, where an oily flavour is 
rather prized than otherwise, the present species supplies the 
inhabitants plentifully with food, not only by its flesh, but 
by its eggs also. In our more refined latitudes the eggs are 
only valued for collections; neither the birds nor the eggs 
being at all made use of for food. 
The Foolish Guillemot measures seventeen inches and 
three-quarters in length ; its beak one inch eleven lines; 
the tarsus one inch seven lines ; the wing, from the carpus to 
the tip, six inches two lines. 
The plumage of the adult bird in the breeding season 
is as follows:—the head and upper part of the neck are 
brownish-black, and the division of the feathers from the eye 
towards the nape forms a streak in the colouring ; the feathers 
of the head and neck are very soft and close; the back 
is cinereous black, intermixed with brown. The tips of 
the secondaries are white; the breast, belly, and vent, 
white ; the flanks streaked witli blackish ash ; the legs are 
brownish-black ; the beak is black outside and orange- 
yellow inside : the eyes are brown. 
In winter the throat and sides of the neck are white, with 
