The Guillemot, or Sea Hen.
Nuipb. LXXX1V.
JT is almoft as Kg as the common Duck; its Length frorn the End of the
Bill to the End of the Tail is eighteen Inches and a half; the Breadth
en extended two Foot fix Inches; the Head, upper fide pf the Neck,
B a c k , Wings and Tail, and befide the Chin alfo, as far as the middle of
the Throat, are of a dark brown or blackifh Colour ; its Belly, Breaft,and
the reft of its Throat are white ; the Tips of the eleven foremoft or out-
ermoft Wing Feathers of the firft Row are white ; the Tail is two Inches
Jqng, confifting of twelve Feathers, the middlemoft of which is the long-
eft, and the reft fhorterby Degrees to the outermoft.
The S k in of the Stomach within is yellow; the Gall-bladder large, and
the Tefticles in the Males large, from which the feminal Veflels with vari*
ops Windings and Refections tend to the Vent.
It lives and companies together with the Auks apd Coulternebs, breeding
after the fame Manner, and in the fame Places, but a much fimpler Bird,
and more eafily taken. . . _
It breeds yearly on the fteep Cliffs and inacceflible Rocks of the Ifle of
Man, likewife on the Ifiand or Rock call’d Godreave, not far from St. Ives
in Cornwall-, alfo on P reft holm Ifland, about a League diftant from Beau-
rnam in the ljle oi/tnglefey, where for want of freih Water there are no
Inhabitants nor any Buildings remaining, fave an old ruinous Chapel dedicated.
to St. Sir'ician. This Bird alfo frequents and builds on the Farn-,
JJla rid , nPar the Coaft of Northumberland, and the Cliffs about Scarborough
in Tdrkfhire, in the Summer Months.
This lays the biggeft Eggs of all this kind, more than three Inches long,
very fliarp at one end, and blunt at the other, of a bluiih green Colour,
fome varied with black Spots or Strokes, and fome without any.
Some of thefe Birds vary in Colour, the Back of fome of them being
very black, others of a brown or bay Colour.
Tht