Guillemot gets to a certain size, it manages to climb upon
the back of the old bird, which conveys it down to the ocean.
Having carried a good telescope with me, through it I sav
numbers of young Guillemots diving and sporting on the
sea, quite unable to fly ; and I observed others on the
ledges of the rocks as I went down among them, in such
situations that, had they attempted to fall into the waves
beneath, they would have been killed by striking against
the projecting points of the intervening sharp and rugged
rocks ; wherefore I concluded that the information of the
rock-climbers was to be depended upon.” Mr. Maclachlan,
however, asserts that the young bird is grasped by the wing,
near the shoulder, and is not, as a rule, carried down on the
back of the parent. The cry of the young Guillemot is willock,
willock, whence its local name, and the same is probably the
origin of the French-derived appellation, Guillemot, for the
adult: a term seldom employed by the fishermen and cliff-
men, excepting when speaking to strangers. It is, strictly
speaking, a Breton word ; and as ‘ Gwillim,’ we find the
name in Welsh. In England the commonest is the ono-
matopoetic ‘ Murre,’ from the murmuring noise of the assembled
multitudes at their breeding-haunts ; whilst with mere
fishermen the bird is more frequently known as ‘ Scout,
pei’haps from its short or ‘ cutty ’ tail; also as £ Marrock, or
‘ Marrot.’ By the end of August, or early in September,
both parents and offspring have quitted the rocks for that
year, and for a time remain both night and day on the open
water, far from land, till the circle of seasons induces another
visit to the rocks.
The Common Guillemot breeds in vast numbers in the
Faeroes, Iceland, Norway up to the North Cape and round it
to the Varanger fjord; and, owing to the influence of the
Gulf Stream, as far north as Bear Island; but the record of
its occurrence in Spitsbergen appears to be an error, the only
species found there being Briinnich’s Guillemot. With the
exception of Bornholm, it can hardly be said to have a breeding
place in the Baltic ; there is a colony on Heligoland ;
and many exist on the northern and western coasts of France.
Southwards its winter range extends as far as the Canary
Islands, but it seldom goes any distance up the Mediterranean.
On the American side of the Atlantic it occurs
regularly from New England in winter up to about 60° N. lat.
in summer; and it has been obtained atGodthaab in Greenland
about 4° further north. In the North Pacific it is
represented by a closely allied and very doubtfully distinct
form, Uria californica, Bryant.
In former Editions of this work the Binged or Bridled
Guillemot was figured and described with the concluding
remark by the Author, that “ opinions seemed fairly balanced
as to whether this bird is a species or a variety.” Since those
lines were written the general opinion of ornithologists has
inclined to consider it as merely a race with a tendency to
develop an unusual amount of white encircling the eye and
running along the crease or furrow which passes thence
down the sides of the head. It inhabits the same localities,
and is always found in company with the common species,
but in far inferior numbers. At Lundy Island it is rare, so
it is at Flamborough. On the Fame Islands, where the
Editor had an opportunity of watching the breeding Guillemots
at a very short distance, he observed several biids with
well-developed eye-rings and streaks, sitting on theii eggs,
whilst others exhibited gradations from the above to the
usual furrow with only a few white feathers at its junction
VOL. iv. L