Forth ; and Mr. Selby, writing in 1833, says it is a numerous species in the northern parts of Scotland and 
its isles, hut becomes of rarer occurrenee as we approach the English coast, where, indeed, it is but occa- 
sionally met with ; “ and,” he adds, “ although Montagu has mentioned it as resorting to the Earn Islands, I 
can safely assert that this has not been the case for the last twenty-five or thirty years.” Sir William Jardine 
gives the coasts of the north of Scotland as being near to its southern range in Britain ; but he mentions having 
met with the species in the Isle of Man, and that it occasionally occurs on the southern coast of England. 
“ It is interesting, therefore,” says Thompson, “ to find that this bird is not only equally common in the south 
and in the north of Ireland, hut that it nidifies as frequently on the rocky coasts of the former, as on those of 
the latter portion of the island.” 
Macgillivray has given us such a graphic description of the situations frequented by this bird, and of its 
habits, that it would be an act of injustice to this elegant writer not to transcribe it : — 
“ Suppose yourself fioating on the heavy swell of the Atlantic, along the base of a cllflf decorated with 
luxuriant tufts of Rhodiola rosea, Silerie marithna, and Statice armeria, and inhabited by Guillemots, Auks, 
and Starlings. Here and there are narrow cracks, perpendicular and inclined. In most of them, after a 
shot has been fired, you will see one, two, or more black Guillemots looking down upon you, half afraid 
to remain, and loth to leave their eggs or young. Another shot is fired, and you see them bounce away on 
rapidly moving wings. There, on a shelf, a dozen of them have, alighted in a row ; their black plumage, 
enlivened by the two white wing-spots, and their singular-looking red feet, contrast with the brown rock. 
You may approach and shoot half of them if you will, for they are by no means shy. Such are their usual 
breeding-places ; for they never, like the other Auks and Guillemots, deposit their eggs on the exposed 
ledges of the cliffs. They differ from them also in laying two eggs. I have never, however, obtained them 
from such places, although I know those who, clinging to the face of the rifted crag, have done so, foolishly, 
I thought, and at the peril of life ; but I have many times taken them from under the large blocks of stone 
near high-water mark. Nests they have none, unless a little gravel or some pebbles may be so called. The 
eggs are about the same size and shape as those of a domestic fowl, being regularly ovate, from two inches 
and a quarter to two inches and a half in length, and from an inch and six to an inch and seven twelfths in 
breadth, sometimes smooth, often rough, with little flattened prominences, and of a greyish white, yel- 
lowish white, bluish white, or sometimes pale greenish blue, and marked with blotches, spots, and dots of 
dark brown, varying in tint from brownish black to umber, together with faint purplish-grey spots, the 
markings larger and more numerous near the larger end. The eggs are deposited in the beginning of June, 
and early in August the young are abroad. 
“Their food consists of small fishes and Crustacea, in search of which they frequent the sounds and bays 
less than the open sea. On all the coasts of Scotland, the fry of the Coalfish is a very common article of 
food with them, as with many other sea-birds. About most of their breeding-places I have not observed 
them to proceed dally to any great distance ; but, on leaving the rocks with their young, they disperse over 
the ocean until the next .spring. Yet they do not migrate far southward, most of them remaining all the 
winter in the north. 
“This species sits lightly on the water, on which it j)addles about in a very lively manner. It dives with 
rapidity, like a shot as it were ; and, under water, it actually flies, as I have often seen. If shot at on the 
water, it will often dive — but also frequently rise on wing, and in so doing strikes the water with its wings 
and feet for some distance. Its flight is quick, direct, and performed by a perpetual rapid beating of the 
wings. In proceeding to a distance, they often fly in small strings, low over the w'ater, now inclining a little 
to one side, then to the other. When their nests or roosting-places are high on the rocks, they gradually 
curve upward as they approach them, and alight abruptly. On the ground they move about but little, although, 
on occasion, they walk moderately well and prettily, with short steps, and nearly erect. They repose either 
standing or lying flat on the rock. 
“The eggs, when hard-boiled, are remarkably good; but the flesh of the bird, being dark-coloured and 
rank, is not agreeable, though better than that of the Auk or other Guillemots.” 
The late Mr. Salmon states that the principal breeding-place in the Orkneys is a small holm, lying to the 
eastward of Papa Westra, wliere it is very numerous, and will scarcely move off the rocks when approached. 
He invariably found two eggs together, deposited upon the bare ground, principally under the large fragments 
of rocks scattered about upon the island, without any appearance of nest. The young are at first covered 
with a greyish-black down, through which mottled feathers of black and white soon protrude. Both 
adults and young exhibit a considerable amount of white during the winter, and in this state form the 
“ Marbled Guillemot ” of older authors. 
The Plate represents the bird in summer and in winter plumage, of the size of life. I trust my readers 
will excuse the incongruity of placing birds in the dress of opposite seasons on the same plate. 
