IB 
ON THE LESSEE GUILLEMOT 
Montagu refers the disappearance from the British 
coasts during winter of the Razor-Bills and Foolish Guille- 
mots to migration ; but this is a cause that has been much 
too generally applied to account for the apparent absence 
of many species in certain countries ; it may be often ac- 
counted for by supposing them to change their plumage, 
or merely to disperse, when not induced by incubation to 
keep to certain haunts, and in numerous assemblages. 
Fabrigius says, that the Razor-Bills and Black-billed 
Auks breed in Greenland, and are found there during the 
winter ; but Montagu states, that the Razor-Bills, not 
being so hardy as the others, migrate from the British 
coasts in v/inter, and their place is taken by the others. 
How, then, does it happen that the tribe of Razor-Bills in 
Greenland are so much superior in hardihood to their ef- 
feminate race on our coasts, and are able to brave the ri- 
gours of the frozen regions, when so many of the Black- 
billed Auks even are compelled to quit them ? Or, if some 
migrate southward, how comes it to pass that they are 
never seen on the British coasts ? The Black-billed Auks 
are very far from being so numerous in Zetland as in Scot- 
land, — perhaps not much more frequent in that country 
than in England,— yet if such multitudes came from Arc- 
tic countries, we ought occasionally to observe them there 
on their passage southward, as happens with other birds, 
which visit it as a half-way station. 
Not a single Lesser Guillemot or Black-billed Auk is 
seen on the coasts, even of Zetland, for six weeks after the 
alleged migration of the other species. This is decidedly 
opposed to all my observations. I have met with them 
from the period at which the Razor-Bills and Foolish 
Guillemots are first observed to quit the cliffs (in August), 
throughout the winter, till the middle of the ensuing spring. 
If they be not the same species, how shall we account 
