GUILLEMOT. 75 



of the bill above covered with short, downy feathers ; from the eye 

 to the hindhead they divide in a singular manner, giving the appear- 

 ance of a line or channel ; the head, neck, back, and wings, are 

 mouse-colour; tips of the lesser quills white; under part of the body 

 wholly white; sides under the wings marked with dusky lines; above 

 the thighs the feathers are long, and curve downwards; legs dusky. 

 Both sexes are alike in plumage. 



The Guillemot is found on many parts of the English coasts 

 during the summer, and in some particular spots in vast abundance, 

 especially on rocky cliffs ; first seen in May, and disappears the end 

 of August. The Razor-bills, too, observe the same manners, and 

 are found in the same places, though they do not interfere with each 

 other. During the breeding season, our sportsmen attend these 

 spots, that they may perfect themselves in the art of shooting flying, 

 for which purpose no birds are more suitable, for they will see their 

 companions killed one after another, without much alarm ; as, after 

 making a circuit, they alight in the same place, to be shot at in 

 turn. These, as well as the Auks, and Puffins,* are indiscriminately 

 called Willocks ; by the Welch, Guillem ; in Northumberland and 

 Durham, Guillemot, or Sea Hen ; in Yorkshire, Scout; in Cornwall, 

 Kiddaw ; other names are mentioned which they go by, as, Marrot, 

 Strany, Lungy, and Skuttock.f They lay a single egg, more than 

 three inches in length, of a bluish white, or pale sea-green, and so 

 irregularly spotted and streaked with black, that no two are alike. 

 The places they most resort to in this kingdom are, the uninhabited 

 Isle of Priestholm, near the Isle of Anglesea; a rock called Godreve, 

 not far from St. Ives, in Cornwall ; the Farn Isles, near the Coast 

 of Northumberland, and the Cliffs about Scarborough, in Yorkshire. 

 Are also found in most of the northern parts of Europe, as far as 



* Col. Montagu mentions one being shot near him, in January, 1805 ; it was a female, 

 in the usual plumage, and weighed thirty ounces.— Ornith. Diet. Said to be found in the 

 Orkney Islands throughout the year.— Br. Zool. f Orn. Diet. 



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