does not differ from the Common Guillemot. The eggs are
as a rule somewhat thicker and blunter, and in the green
varieties the colour is perhaps a trifle brighter.
A specimen of the bird brought from Iceland by Mr.
Proctor agrees exactly with Sir Edward Sabine’s description
of this species in its summer plumage. The beak is black,
the posterior half of the marginal portion of the upper mandible
nearly white, extending from the corner of the mouth
to the point where the feathers project on the bill, and forming
a very characteristic mark; the irides dark brown ; throat
sooty-brown, as in the Razor-bill; head, neck behind, back,
wings, and tail black, with a greenish gloss ; secondaries
tipped with white, forming a bar across the wing; belly, and
all beneath, pure white, running up to a point on the front
of the neck; in the Common Guillemot the white colour
ends here in the form of a rounded arch; legs and toes
yellowisli-olive on the upper parts, dark brown below; membranes
brownish-black. The whole length is eighteen inches.
From the wrist to the end of the longest quill-feather eight
inches and a quarter. The sexes are alike in plumage, but
the female is rather smaller than the male.
This species undergoes the same changes of plumage
from season as the U. troile. Sabine remarks that specimens
killed early in June had the throat and neck white,
unmixed with black; towards the end of June the change
was in progress, and by the second week in July, as many
were found in perfect summer plumage, with black throats
and necks, as were still in change. Adult birds lose their
dark throat at the autumn moult.
Uria grylle (Linnaeus*).
THE BLACK GUILLEMOT.
Uriel grylle.
T h e B lack G u il l em o t , a well-known species, is smaller
in size than the Common Guillemot, and more confined to
the northern parts of the British Islands ; but, like other
members of this genus, it is a bird of the open sea, frequenting
the rocks for a limited period during the season of incubation,
and only being found inland after severe weather.
It is local, remaining all the year in such situations as suit
its habits, or ranging southwards for a comparatively short
distance in winter. Rodd only records two examples off
Cornwall; its occurrences on the coasts of Devonshire, Dor-
* Colymbics Grylle, Linnteus, Sjst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 220 (1766).
VOL. IV. M