296 
ALCAD.E. 
ocoasionally with a scattered few common ones close by. I 
procured the first eggs year after year, always leaving those of 
the second laying, and can assert positively that each descrip- 
tion of bird returns to the same spot annually. The eggs are 
for the most part undistinguishable from those of the Common 
Guillemot, and I have specimens, fully coloured, taken from 
recently-killed females ; but with the exception of having dis- 
carded my former belief, that the egg was peculiar in size and 
shape, I cannot but adhere to my old opinion (''ZooL,” 1864, p. 
9242), ‘‘ that generally in the eggs of U. lachrymans the 
blotches are larger, the ground colour is clearer, there are fewer 
under tints, and the markings are better defined and less prone 
to take the form of streaks.” It may be scarcely necessary to 
remark that both birds occasionally lay white eggs. Mr 
Harting mentions (“Handbook of British Birds,” p. 74), that in 
the, Hebrides Mr Harvie Brown had seen a Binged Guillemot 
feeding a young bird which was under the wing of a Common 
Guillemot. This again but throws an equal weight into either 
side of the scale ; for it may be asked, is it certain that the 
parent which cannot recognise its own egg is incapable of 
making a similar error as regards its own young ? 
The proportion of the number of ringed to common birds in 
Shetland has not yet been correctly ascertained. Very few 
of the summer battues have been attended by me, and it is 
impossible to obtain correct information from a number of 
excited shooters upon their return. The fowlers consider 
the “ Longie with the white eye” to be less abundant than the 
common species ; and with regard to the eggs, they say they are 
“ bonnier,” meaning that they are more distinctly marked, and 
the blotches are larger. All this precisely agrees with my own 
experience. 
Now that the sea-birds which breed in the British Islands 
are so happily on the increase, observers will have better 
opportunities of collecting facts for themselves, but the 
question of species or variety appears to be almost a hopeless 
one. Even the experiment of keeping Idrds in captivity 
