Black Guillemot.
Colymbw grylle, Linn. Faun. Sue.c., p. 52.
Uria,grylle, Lath. Ind. p. 797,
Cohymbus lacteolus, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 583.
Uria lacteola, Lath. Ind. Örh.,. y^i. ii.- p. 798. ' ■-
— balthica, Brünn. Om. Bcirl, p. 28.
Grilla, Vieill. Gal. des Ois., tom. ii. pi. 294.
— scapularis, Steph. Cont o f Shaw’s; Gen. Zool, vol. xii. p. 260, pi. 64.
Cephas grylle, Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 562.
arcticus, Brehm, Yög. Deutscjil., p. 988.
Meisneri, Brehm, ibid.,'p.'989 ?
Fcerrceensis, Brehm, ibid., p. 990.
Uria (Uria) grylle, Baird, Cat. of N. Amer. Birds in Müs. Smiths. Inst., p. lv.
I t will not be necessary for me 6» enter into roe controversy respecting the specific differences observable in
the Black Guillemots from various parts of the world, inasmuch as the subject has been ably investigated
in Mr. Newton** “ Notes on the Birds observed in Spitzbergen,”jvhilfe, for the information of those who are
not already acquainted with them I may mention, will be found in ‘The Ibis’ for 1865, p. 517, and that
they coinprise a diagnosis«©!’ the four or five species known.fj Of these, the bird here figured is doubtless
the one to which Linnaeus assigned the specific '¿term grylle, and the only one o f the form which inhabits our
islands, or, rather, visits, at one season or other, the seas surrounding our shores. This extremely pretty
species is more plentiful in the northern than in the southern division of Britain, particularly at- the season
o f reproduction. Montagu speaks-of its-'breeding in his time at Tenby, in Pembrokeshire ; and Peunant, at
Llandudno, in Angjesea ; but we must novy, I believe, go as far noiiih as the Isle o f Man if we wish to
see the bird thus engaged. It is much more local than most o f the rtogjk-birds, and many o f the stations that
are thronged in multitudes by the Common Guillemot, Razorbill, and Puffin'are never visited by the preseut
species. In Ireland it breeds in more southern spots than in Great, Britain ; hut it has numerous stations in
and around the coasts o f Scotland, and is especially abundant in the Ferroes, some parts of Iceland, and
along almost the entire coast o f Norway. This species also occurs in America ; but Mr. Cassin, hr..
Prof. Baird’s * Birds o f Nprfch America,’ p. 911, does nqt discriminate between it ¡apt! Uria Mandti, which is
certainly found in the high northern parts o f that continent, and o f which I have a specimen, killed on Beechey
Island in June 1854, and presented to me by Dr.-Lyall. The younger Mr. Whitely states that it is also
found in Japan ; but this, I think, requires confirmation, since the only specimen he collected has passed out
o f his hands, lie knows not whither, and it is very likely’ to have been an example o f the common species of
the Pacific Ocean, Uria cohmoa.
The Uria gryUe is perhaps the most distinctly marked, and, except the U. carlo, is the blackest o f all the
Guillemots ; its trivial name o f black, however, is scarcely appropriate, -and pied or varied would also be
equally inapplicable. In summer only would the former term be at all suitable,‘and the others for the short
space o f time in winter during which a varied garb exists ; hut even then itw so cout.0MMdljy changing that no
two specimens are prwmely alike. Mr. Gatcombe believes there is yet much to h« learned concerning the
time the change of pbimage takes place in this and many other sea-bird*. For example, on the 26th o f
December, 1863, he kitted a» old Black GwiHemot which had already assumecl more than half o f its spring
plumage, the entire neck being prettily mottled with sooty and v 4 # s ieatWrs ; and a Little Auk, killed in the
middle o f thè same month Was in the mmt perfect summer birds are believed by some persons
to be either barren females or yonthfu! males that have n o «W «bated.. How frequently in autumn do we
observe Great Northern Divers, in their full summer costum^associafmg^with others, evidently adult, but
carrying the usual grey dress o f that season. When handled in the flesh, the Black Guillemot is found
to be such a short, round, and heavy mass, that one at first wonders how its small wings can sustain it during
iit- flights from one part o f the ocean to another, or enable it to perform its ascents to its lofty breeding-
plaees amid high rocks ; but a very slight examination shows that, owing to its powerful pectoral muscles, it
is a bird erf very strong and rapid flight.
Macgillivray, who considered the Black Guillemot one o f the most beautiful o f our sea-birds, states that
in Britain all its breeding-piaces are to ihe north o f the Tweed and Solway, and that the most southern localities
with which he was acquainted are the Bass Rock and the Isle o f May, at the mouth of the Firth of