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B L A C K GUILLEMOT.
Uria Grylle, Lath.
Le Guillemot k miroir blanc.
The northern parte of Scotland and the Orkney and Shetland Islands form a place of general rendezvous for
the Black Guillemot, which heing less migratory in its habits than its near ally the Foolish Guillemot (Uria
Troile, Lath.) seldom quits these isolated groups, whose bays afford it shelter during the stormy season of
winter, and whose abrupt and precipitous cliffs are equally inviting as a site for incubation! On the ledges of
these rocks it deposits its single white egg spotted with black: the young are hatched in about three weeks,
and shortly after are conveyed, but by what means is unknown, to the, water, an element to which they are so
expressly adapted that they are enabled to swim and dive with the utmost facility the moment they arrive on
its surface, and to brave with impunity the rough seas which are so prevalent in northern latitudes. After
the process of reprodnction is over, adults are subject to a considerable change in the colour of their
plumage, apparently caused by a 'general moult, even to the primaries, which are so simultaneously lost that the
bird is for a considerable period deprived o f the power of flight. The fine black plumage by which the Black
Guillemot is characterized during the summer now gives place to a mottled dress, consisting of half white
and half black feathers unequally dispersed over the body, the former colour predominating so much during
the rigorous season of winter as «¡render the bird almost wholly white. Although this style of plumage
characterizes, to a certain extent, the young of the year, still the latter may at aU times be distinguished from
the former by having the tips of each feather, which is white beneath, only fringed with black ; by having the
white spot on the wings, at all times uniform in the adult, invariably clouded with black; and by thefeet
being yellowish brown instead of red.
Although a few pairs of the Black Guillemot occasionally breed bn the Isle of May in the mouth of the
Frith of Forth, still it is evident that the high northern latitudes form its most congenial and natural habitat.
It appears to abound in the arctic circle, being equally common in the polar regions of both continents.
According to the continental writere, it is less abundant on the coasts of Holland and France than on those
of England, but more frequent on those of Norway and the shores of the Baltic. It rarely, if ever, resorts to
inland waters.
Its principal food consists of small fisb, marine Crustacea, &c.
The sexes are alike in plumage, and the adults, in summer, may be distinguished by their having the whole
of the plumage of a sooty-black tinged with olive-green, with the exception of a snow-white patch on the
centre of each wing; bill black; irides and feet red.
The Plate represents an adult and a young bird of the natural size.