Guillemot were the most rare, not so much on account óf
the smaller number of the parent birds, as from the circumstance
of these birds breeding away from the others, far lower
down on the rocks, and. they were .consequently much mort
difficult to obtain by those lowered down from the.iop o f the
rocks. The halites .of Grimse-y further testified;-hot in wields,”
but by placing the lairds in pairs together» and by separating
others when out of: each were.placed together as a; pair, that
the Common Guillemot, and the Ringed Guillemot do not
breed one with the other, but each‘sort by themselves.?
M. -Nilsson, professor of natural, history at Lund* ,in his,
Fauna of Scandinavia, considers the Ringed Guillemot only
as a variety of the Common Guillemot, but"as^ it appears
that the most weighty evidence is in favours ,o|$iits being a
species, rather than a variety, I have ghferï »-it a place I in
this work..
Not haying' seen the eggs, of this Ringéd'Guillemot, I
am unable to .state the characters by which” they are Mis-’
tinguished, but . the birds themselves in theif habits and food
are deseribld as very closely resembling the speeies already
noticed.
An adult bird, in its breeding-plumage, ;pbtained atGrim-
SCy Island, has. the beak black, rather moret^fender in form
than that of. the Gommon Guillemot obtained^:at .the .same
locality; the i rides dark; all_ro.und the- eye a narrow ring
of pure white,; and a line-of the same colour about an dnch
and a half long, passingjjfrom the backwards, and. downwards
oh the neck; head, chin,throat, upper part of neck
all round, lower portion of neck bghmd, back, wings, and
tail dull greyish-black ; tips of ^secondaries, and all thé under
surface of the body white"; legs^.toes, and membranes
brownish-black. f The whole length abouf eighteen inches*
the wing, from the joint to the end eight inches.
NATATORES. ALCADÆ.
T H E BLACK GUILLEMOT.
Uria grylle,
Cephus ,
W Ë ,
BlacU Guillemot, P enn. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 163.
Mont. Oxnith. Diet,
Spotted . „ .
Bldck ,,
■Spotted h
..Common Scraber,
Black Guillemot*
Guillemot à mif oif blanc,
Bewick, Brit. Birds, vol.ii. p. 192.
M „ „ 194.
F l e m . Brit. An. p. 134.
Seeks, Brit. Omith. vol. ii. p. 426.
J enyns, Brit.-Vert. p. 258.
' @ouE©, Birds, of Europe, pt. xv.
Temm. Man. d’Ornith. vol. ii. p. 925.
T he B laBk Guillemot, a well-known species, is smaller
in size than the Common Guillemot, and more confined, to
the-ihorthern parts of the British Islands; but like the other
2 a l |