BLACK GUILLEMOT 
283 
overhanging the sea. The same holes are resorted to regu- 
larly year after year. 
As early as February I have observed the birds on the 
water outside the station, and heard their dreary whining 
cry — a curious sound, which is not, however, frequently 
uttered. 
On 20th May 1901 Mr. Graves saw twelve birds evi- 
dently pairing. Two or three birds which he took to be 
males would in an animated way chase another (presumably 
a female) ; suddenly all would dive and the pursuit be 
continued beneath the water, the white wing patch and red 
feet being then very noticeable. The wings, as well as the 
feet, were used in swimming beneath the water. Some 
birds had then paired, and they were in couples close 
together, and the male jealously kept off any intruder. 
They scarcely, however, begin to lay before the end of 
May (Mr. Graves gives 25th May, when he found two fresh 
eggs, as his earliest date). 
The Black Guillemot is far from well known about the 
localities it frequents, but has attracted the attention of the 
coast fishermen, who call it Sea Pigeon ; and one little 
colony had acquired the quaint name of * Sam's Hens/ or 
' Sam's Chickens,' from a man whose cottage was near their 
breeding haunt. 
As above mentioned, the species is seldom seen in 
summer even at a short distance from the station, but 
after disappearing thence it scatters over the sea, and now 
and again specimens in the very dissimilar winter plumage 
are procured along the coast. In September 1890 a young 
individual attracted much notice among boatmen at Douglas, 
frequenting for about a week the sea under the promenade, 
nearly opposite the Granville Hotel, attaching itself to the 
spot with a curious persistence, swimming and diving with 
amusing fearlessness among the pleasure-boats kept for hire, 
