212 
ALCIDJE. 
in the summer of 1848, but was considered too much injured to 
be w r orth preservation. 
Attention has been directed only of late years to this bird, 
either as a variety of the common guillemot, or as a distinct 
species. It differs, according to Gould, from the TJria troile in 
the “ white mark which encircles the eyes and passes dow r n the 
sides of the head.” This author names the coast of Wales as 
frequented by it, to which that of Cornwall, Lincolnshire, York- 
shire, and Durham have been added in Yarrell’s wmrk. Devon- 
shire may here be included, as one was procured at the end of 
January 1848 in Plymouth Sound by John Gatcombe, Esq. This 
gentleman having remarked the bird as apparently larger than the 
common guillemot (though both are described as similar in size), 
and as swimming in a different manner, followed in his boat, 
and shot it. Two others have since been obtained there, one of 
which, found dead soon after the first, had assumed summer 
plumage. In the ‘ Historia Naturalis Orcadensis/ published in 
1848, and the ‘Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ 
Club’ for the same year (p. 275), it is mentioned as occurring 
on the Scottish coast. Several are said, in the former work, to 
have been shot in Orkney, and one, in the latter, at the Bass 
Bock on July 25, 1840. The boatmen knew of only one or two 
being killed there, but said the species was not uncommon at the 
Isle of May.* 
The best information on this bird that I have seen, and more 
especially in reference to its distinctness as a species, is that by 
Mr. Proctor (subcurator of the Durham University Museum), 
published in YarrelFs work (vol. iii. p. 460, 2nd edit.). It is 
the result of a visit to the breeding-haunt o i the bird at Grimsey, 
an island about forty miles to the north of Iceland, where the 
U. lacrymans , U. troile , and U. Brunnichii were found breeding 
in their respective quarters : they v 7 ere distinguished by the inha- 
new series. The letter containing this information was dated February 26, 1846 ; 
hut when the bird had been killed was not stated. 
Mr. A. Hepburn; who gives a full description of the specimen obtained. 
