272 THE BLACK GUILLEMOT. 



second; all covered above with numerous scutella, webbed, the lateral ones 

 with small margins; claws small, slightly arched, compressed, rather acute, 

 the middle one larger, with a dilated inner edge. 



Plumage dense, very soft, blended; on the head very short. Wings 

 rather short, narrow, acute; primary quills curved, tapering, the first longest, 

 the second little shorter, the rest rapidly graduated; secondaries short, 

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

 feathers. 



Bill black; inside of mouth gamboge-yellow. Iris dark brown. Feet 

 black. The general colour of the plumage is greyish-black on the upper 

 parts; the sides of the head and upper part of the neck black, tinged with 

 brown. A white bar across the wing, formed by the tips of the secondary 

 quills, and a line of the same encircling the eye, and extending behind it 

 The lower parts white. 



Length to end of tail 17-J inches, to end of claws 194, to end of wings 

 17^; extent of wings 30 inches; wing from flexure 7^; tail 2; tarsus 1 T 3 2-; 

 middle toe 1 T 7 2, its claw -/j. Weight 2 lbs. 



Adult Female. 



The female is similar to the male, and, when mature, has the white line 

 around and behind the eye. 



THE BLACK GUILLEMOT. 



Uria Grylle, Linn. 



PLATE CCCCLXXIV. — Adult in Summer, Adult in Winter, and Young. 



It was a frightful thing to see my good Captain, Henry Emery, swinging 

 on a long rope upon the face of a rocky and crumbling eminence, at a height 

 of several hundred feet from the water, in search of the eggs of the Black 

 Guillemot, with four or five sailors holding the rope above, and walking 

 along the edge of the precipice. I stood watching the motions of the 

 adventurous sailor. When the friction of the rope by which he was 

 suspended loosened a block, which with awful crash came tumbling down 

 from above him, he, with a promptness and dexterity that appeared to me 



