THE FOOLISH GUILLEMOT. 267 



rather short, narrow, acute; primary quills curved, tapering, the second 

 longest, the first slightly shorter, the rest rapidly graduated; secondaries 

 short, incurved, broad, rounded. Tail very short, rounded, of twelve narrow 

 feathers. 



Bill black. Iris dark brown. Feet dusky, tinged with red. The general 

 colour of the plumage is greyish-black on the upper parts, those of the head 

 tinged with brown. The sides of the head and neck, its fore part, the 

 breast, abdomen, edges of the wings and the tips of the secondaries, white; 

 the sides shaded with greyish-black; a line of the same behind the eye. 



Length to end of tail 18^ inches, to end of claws 21^; extent of wings 30; 

 wing from flexure 8; tail 2^; bill along the ridge 1 T 2 2, along the edge of 

 lower mandible 2; tarsus l-f^; middle toe ljj, its claw T 5 2. Weight 2\ lbs. 



THE FOOLISH GUILLEMOT.— MURRE. 



Uria Troile, Linn. 



PLATE CCCCLXXIIL— Male and Female. 



This bird is seldom found farther south than the entrance of the Bay of 

 New York, where, however, it appears only during severe winters, for being 

 one of the most hardy inhabitants of the northern regions, its constitution is 

 such as to enable it to bear without injury the rigours of their wintry 

 climates. About the bays near Boston the Guillemots are seen every year 

 in greater or less numbers, and from thence to the eastward they become 

 gradually more abundant. A very old gunner whom I employed while at 

 Boston, during the winter of 1832-3, assured me, that when he was a young 

 man, this species bred on many of the rocky islands about the mouth of the 

 bay there; but that for about twenty years back none remained after the first 

 days of April, when they departed for the north in company with the Thick- 

 billed Guillemot, the Common Auk, the Puffin, and the Eider and King 

 Ducks, all of which visit these bays in hard weather. In the Bay of Fundy, 

 the Foolish Guillemot is very numerous, and is known by the name of 

 Murre y which it retains among all the eggers and fishermen of Newfound- 

 land and Labrador, where it breeds in myriads. To those countries, then, I 



