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time to the inconsiderate and wanton annoyance they experience 
here. At this time, or just before taking their station at their 
breeding-places, they appear far up Belfast Bay, sometimes about 
the quays of the town, and have been killed with oars and 
stones; so late as April 26 (1838) they have been observed here. 
At the end of autumn again for a short time, as well as late m 
spring, they are seen far up the bay. On September 19, 1837, I 
obtained one (its irides were noted to be greyish-brown) in the 
plumage of Bewick's lesser guillemot, of which he gives an in- 
teresting account, showing it to have been an excellent and patient 
sitter for its picture. In the first week of October 1838, several 
were shot here ; in 1840 they first made their appearance on 
the 4th of that month. A fine bird which I had weighed proved 
to be 2 lbs. 1 oz. In Strangford Lough I have remarked them 
at the beginning of October. 
When about the entrance of Belfast Bay in winter, I have 
always observed some of these birds, and a few individuals killed 
there during that season have come under my notice. They have 
occasionally been brought from Dublin Bay to the city in winter; 
and, in the c Fauna of Cork/ are noticed as “ resident." 
Mr. Selby is of opinion that “ the colonies which had made the 
English coast their summer quarters, retire to more southern 
latitudes to pass the winter months. Their place in this country 
is but sparingly supplied by a few stragglers from the great bodies 
that, being bred in still higher latitudes, make the friths of Scot- 
land and its isles, the limit of their equatorial migration"* (vol. ii. 
p. 422). This interesting view of the question is as applicable to 
Ireland as to Scotland, but, not being susceptible of proof, it must 
unfortunately remain a mere matter of speculation. The great 
body at least of old birds that breed upon the cliffs of Ireland 
* When proceeding from East Tarbert to Greenock, on February 1, 1849, and 
about the entrance to Loch Fine, I saw a number of these birds, or razorbills, both 
singly and in pairs, and in one instance four in company. Guillemots they most probably 
were, but they did not come near enough on flight, or admit of such an approach 
when swimming, to enable me to determine their species. The headland of Oe, in 
Islay, and the Craig of Ailsa, may be mentioned as insular breeding-places of the 
guillemots known to me off the south-west of Scotland. 
