154 
THE FOOLISH GUILLEMOT. 
while at other times they fly at the height of thirty or forty yards. They 
are expert divers, using their wings like fins, and under water looking like 
winged fishes. They frequently plunge at the flash of the gun, and disap- 
pear for a considerable time. Before rising, they are obliged to run as it 
were on the water, fluttering for many yards before they get fairly on wing. 
Those which I kept alive for weeks on board the Ripley, walked about 
and ran with ease, with the whole length of their tarsus touching the deck. 
They took leaps on chests and other objects to raise themselves, but could 
not fly without being elevated two or three feet, although when they ai*e on 
the rocks, and can take a run of eight or ten yards, they easily rise on wing. 
The islands on which the Guillemots breed on the coast of Labrador, are 
flatfish at top, and it is there, on the bare rock, that they deposit their eggs. 
I saw none standing on the shelvings of high rocks, although many breed 
in such places in some parts of Europe. Their food consists of small fish, 
shrimps, and other marine animals ; and they swallow some gravel also. 
Uria Troile, Bonap. Syn., p. 424. 
\Jria Ti.oile, Foolish Guillemot , Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol ii. p. 4 r i1 
Foolish Guillemot, or Murre, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 526. 
Foolish Guillemot, Urii Troile, Aud. Orn. Biog.. vol. iii. p. 142. 
Male, 17 §, 30. 
More or less abundant during winter on the coast of Massachusetts and 
Maine, rarely- as far south as New York. Breeds in vast multitudes on the 
Rocky Islands of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, and Labrador. 
Occasionally found in Hudson’s Bay. 
Adult Male, in summer. 
Bill of moderate length, rather stout, tapering, compressed, acute. Upper 
mandible with the dorsal line slightly curved, the ridge narrow, broader 
at the base, the sides sloping, the edges short and inflected, the tip a little 
decurved with a slight notch. Nasal groove broad, feathered ; nostrils at 
its lower edge, sub-basal, lateral, longitudinal, linear, pervious. Lower 
mandible with the angle medial, narrow, the dorsal line sloping upwards, 
and straight, the back very narrow, the sides nearly flat, the edges sharp 
and inflected. 
Head oblong, depressed, narrowed before. Eyes rather small. Neck 
short and thick. Body stout, rather depressed. Wings rather small. Feet 
short, placed far behind ; the greater part of the tibia concealed, its lower 
portion bare ; tarsus short, stout, compressed, anteriorly sharp, and covered 
with a double row of scutella, the sides with angular scales; toes of moderate 
length, the first wanting, the third nearly longest, the fourth longer than the 
