122 LITTLE GUILLEMOT. 
such times resembling the singing of a hen, but far louder, 
changing often into a haw, ha ha ha haw! the last syllable 
lengthened out like the excessive laugh of a negro. When 
mounting and mingling together, like motes in the sunbeams, 
their black heads and wing-tips and snow-white plumage 
give them a very beautiful appearance. After gaining an 
immense height, they all move off, with one consent, in a 
direct line towards the point of their destination. 
This bird breeds in the marshes. The eggs are three in 
number, of a dun clay colour, thinly marked with small irre- 
gular touches of a pale purple and pale brown ; some are of 
a deeper dun, with larger marks, and less tapering than others; 
the egg measures two inches and a quarter by one inch and 
a half. 
The black-heads frequently penetrate into the interior, 
especially as far as Philadelphia; but they seem to prefer the 
neighbourhood of the coast for the purpose of breeding. They 
retire southward early in autumn. 
LITTLE GUILLEMOT. (Uria alle.) 
PLATE LXXIV.—Fie. 5. 
Uria alle, Temm. Man. d’ Orn. p. 928.—Alca alle, Linn. Syst. ed. 12, tom. i. p. 
211, 5.—Gimel. Syst. i. p. 554, 5.—Ind. Orn. p. 795, 10.—Uria minor, Briss. 
vi. p. 73, 2.—Le Petit Guillemot Femelle, Pl. enl. 917.—Small Black and 
White Diver, Edwards, pl. 91.—Little Auk, Lath. Gen. Syn. iii. p. 327.— 
Penn. Arct. Zool. No. 429.—Bewick, ii. p. 158.—Peale’s Museum, No. 2978. 
MERGULUS MELANOLEUCOS.—Ray.* 
Mergulus melanoleucos, Ray, Synop. p. 125.—Flem. Brit. Anim. p. 135.—Uria 
(subgen. Mergulus) alle, Bonap. Synop. p. 425.—Little Auk, Mont. Orn. Dict. 
and Supp.—Selby, Illust. pl. lxxxi.—Uria alle, North. Zool. ii. p. 479. 
Or the history of this little stranger, but few particulars are 
known. With us it is a very rare bird, and, when seen, it is 
* T have chosen the name of Ray for this species, as both appropriate, 
and, as far as my inquiries have led me, entitled to the priority—and 
the difference in form from the guillemots fully entitles it to the rank of 
asubgenus. It is the only bird allied in any way to the auks, puffins, 


