LITTLE GUILLEMOT. 
223 
height, they all move off, with one consent, in a direct line to- 
wards the point of their destination. 
This bird breeds in the marshes. The eggs are three in 
number, of a dun clay colour, thinly marked with small irre- 
gular touches of a pale purple, and pale brown ; some are of a 
deeper dun, with larger marks, and less tapering than others ; 
the egg measures two inches and a quarter by one inch and a 
half. 
The black-heads frequently penetrate into the interior, espe- 
cially as far as Philadelphia ; but they seem to prefer the neigh- 
bourhood of the coast for the purpose of breeding. They re- 
tire southward early in autumn. 
LITTLE GUILLEMOT URIA ALLE Plate LXXIV. Fig. 5. 
Uria alle, Temm. Man. d’ Orn. p. 928.— Alca aUe, Linn. Syst. ed. 12, tom. i. p. 
211, 5. Gmel. Syst. i. p. 554,5. Ind. Orn. p. 795, 10. — Uriaminor, Briss. 
vi. p. 73, 2 Le Petit Guillemot femeUe, PI. Enl. 917 — Small black and white 
Diver, Edwardsy^. 91. — Little Auk, Xa^/t. Gen. Syn. iii. p. 327. Penn. Arct. 
Zool. No. 429. Beivick, ii. p. 158. Pealds Museum, No. 2978. 
3IERGULUS MELANOLEUCOS.—Rxy* 
Mergulus melanoleucos, Ray, Synop. p. 125. — Flem. Brit. Anim. p. 135.— Uria 
(sub-gen. mergulus) dlla, Bonap. Synop. p. 425. — Little Auk, Mont. Orn. Eict. 
and Supp. Selby, Rlust. pi. LXXXI. — Uria alle, North. Zool. ii. p. 479. 
Of the history of this little stranger, but few particulars are 
known. With us it is a very rare bird, and, when seen, it is 
* I have chosen the name of Ray for this species, as both appropriate, and, as far 
as my enquiries have led me, entitled to the priority — and the difference in form 
from the guillemots fully entitles it to the rank of a sub-genus. It is the only bird 
allied in any way to the auks, puffins, &c., which has been figured by Wilson, 
though several forms occur in the northern seas, and have been pointed out by him, 
which may be now mentioned, but which will be hereafter figured from the 
remaining volumes of the Continuation, by the Prince of Musignano, now in the 
press. I have therefore only added an enumeration from the Synopsis of that 
ornithologist, commencing with the guillemots, for which the genus Uria has 
been adopted ; by some the black guillemot is separated, on account of straight- 
