BRITISH BIRDS 



The variety of colour, shape, and size of the eggs is wonderful. In ground- 

 colour they range from white to bluish-green or blue, showing many variations of 

 tint, with scribbled lines and blotches of brown and black. Some are of a deep 

 chocolate red, but these are rare, and command a correspondingly high price at 

 Bempton. It has been noticed that each female always produces the same type of 

 colour and markings in her eggs. After the breeding season the Guillemots go out 

 to sea, and, considering their vast numbers, it is difficult to say why comparatively 

 so few are seen during winter. The food, consisting chiefly of fish, is obtained by 

 diving. 



A variety of this species, known as the Bridled or Ringed Guillemot, which only 

 differs in having a distinct circle of white around the eye, continued in a straight 

 line backwards, is shown behind the principal figure on the plate. In winter the 

 throat becomes more or less white. 



BRUNNICH'S GUILLEMOT. 

 Uria bruennichi, E. Sabine. 

 Plate 76. 



This species is the Arctic representative of the Common Guillemot, and is a rare 

 straggler in winter to our eastern coasts. 



It is a larger bird, with a thicker bill, marked with a pale line on the edge of the 

 upper mandible, whilst in summer plumage the head and upper parts are blacker 

 than in those of the Common Guillemot. The figure in the plate is in winter dress. 



THE BLACK GUILLEMOT. 

 Uria grylle (Linnaeus). 

 Plate 76. 



This species, known also as the "Tystie," has a more northern range in our 

 islands than the Common Guillemot, and does not now breed on the English 

 mainland, though in summer a few frequent the Isle of Man for this purpose. It 

 nests in some numbers in the Orkneys and Shetlands, the Hebrides, on the rocky 



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