190 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



Lomeria Troile. " The Common Guillemot." Sometimes called 

 the foolish Guillemot, from its surprising tameness in its breeding 

 haunts, where it will at times allow you to knock it over with a 

 stick. They are common round our coasts. They breed in the 

 Isle of Wight and on St Alban's Head, and in 1880 Hart caught 

 two young ones on Christchurch Ledge. I have shot them in 

 Torbay ; but they will be always connected in my mind with a 

 most enjoyable passage I had in 1883 from Waterford to Milford 

 Haven. It was a most lovely summer evening, and the sea as 

 smooth as the typical mill-pond ; and about midway in the Channel 

 the whole sea was alive with these birds, mingled with them being 

 the Puffin, and the Razor Bill. I never saw birds look so apparently 

 happy, and so much at home as they did on the bosom of the wide 

 ocean. They seemed to offer a type of a free and careless life that 

 knew no trouble, and which was circumscribed by no given bounds. 

 It is most curious how the single egg of these birds invariably differs 

 one from another— you never get two alike, for they vary in shape, 

 size, and colour, and you might almost think that it was so arranged 

 in order that each bird might be able to pick out its own individual 

 egg the easier, from the hundreds that are often laid quite close to 

 one another. 



Uria Lacrymans. " Bridled Guillemot. " Whether this bird is a 

 distinct species, or only a variety of the former, I should think was 

 extremely doubtful. They are almost precisely similar, with the 

 exception of the white mark running from the corner of the eye. 

 They are, anyhow, not common to meet with, and are prized by 

 collectors as rarities. Hart shot one at Christchurch on February 

 17th, 1883, and on February 18th, in the same year, he picked up 

 one dead on the coast, among forty or fifty of the common sort, 

 which had succumbed to a strong southerly gale. It was in full 

 summer plumage. This bird is said to breed exclusively with its 

 own species, though in company with the common sort; and in 

 Iceland and that district it is said to be known by a different pro- 

 vincial name, and that the natives at once distinguish it ; and can 

 separate not only the bird, but the eggs, from those of the common 

 species. 



