150 
THE FOOLISH GUILLEMOT. 
rather short, narrow, acute ; primary quills curved, tapering, the second 
longest, the first slightly shorter, the rest rapidly graduated ; secondaries 
short, incurved, broad, rounded. Tail very short, rounded, of twelve nar- 
row feathers. 
Bill black. Iris dark brown. Feet dusky, tinged with red. The general 
colour of the plumage is greyish-black on the upper parts, those of the head 
tinged with brown. The sides of the head and neck, its fore part, the 
breast, abdomen, edges of the wings and the tips of the secondaries, white ; 
the' sides shaded with greyish-black ; a line of the same behind the eye. 
Length to end of tail 18£ inches, to end of claws 21 h ; extent of "wings 30 ; 
wing from flexure 8 ; tail 2£ ; bill along the ridge 1 T %, along the edge of 
lower mandible 2 ; tarsus 1 T \ ; middle toe 1 T ® 3 , its claw T V Weight 2^1bs. 
THE FOOLISH GUILLEMOT.— MUKRE. 
Uria Troile, Linn . 
PLATE CCCCLXXIII.— Male and Female. 
This bird is seldom found farther south than the entrance of the Bay of 
New York, where, however, it appears only during severe winters, for being 
one of the most hardy inhabitants of the northern regions, its constitution is 
such as to enable it to bear without injury the rigours of their wintry 
climates. About the bays near Boston the G-uillemots are seen every year 
in greater or less numbers, and from thence to the eastward they become 
gradually more abundant. A very old gunner whom I employed while at 
Boston, during the winter of 1832-3, assured me, that when he was a young 
man this species bred on many of the rocky islands about the mouth of the 
bay there ; but that for about twenty years back none remained after the first 
days of April, when they departed for the north in company with the Thick- 
billed Guillemot, the Common Auk, the Puffin, and the Eider and King 
Ducks, all of which visit these bays in hard weather. In the bay of Fundy, 
the Foolish Guillemot is very numerous, and is known by the name of 
Murre, which it retains among all the eggers and fishermen of Newfound- 
land and Labrador, where it breeds in myriads. To those countries, then, I 
