Plumage soft, blended, on the fore part of the head short; a tuft of elongated incurved feathers on the sides. Wings short, broad; alula large; primaries curved, broad, second and third longest, first and sixth about equal; secondaries broad and rounded. Tail short, much rounded, of twelve rather weak rounded feathers, which but slightly exceed the upper and lower coverts.
Frontal plate and bill deep carmine, the ends of both mandibles yellow. Iris bright red. Feet yellowish-green, a portion of the bare part of the tibia carmine; claws dusky. Head and neck deep bluish-grey; that colour continues paler over the breast, sides and abdomen, the latter having the feathers tipped with greyish white, and the posterior hypochondrial feathers having a longitudinal band of white towards the end; lower eyelid white, as are the lateral lower tail-coverts, those in the middle black. The back and wings are deep olive, the latter having a narrow edging of white, which also runs along the outer quill. Tail brownish-black.
Length to end of tail 14 inches, to end of claws 19; extent of wings 22; wing from flexure 7 1/4; tail 3; bill from base of frontal plate 1 11/12, along the edge of lower mandible 1 1/4; tarsus 2 1/4, middle toe 2 7/12, its claw 8/12. Weight 12 oz.
The Female is similar to the male, but has the frontal plate smaller.
The Young, when fledged, have the upper part of the head of an olivaceous brown, like the back and wings, the neck of a light dull grey, the chin dull white, the lower parts light grey tinged with yellowish on the breast, most of the feathers tipped with whitish, the lines on the hypochondrial feathers of a dull cream colour and of small extent. The frontal plate is small, and with the bill of a dingy greenish colour, as are the feet, the claws yellowish-brown.
On comparing together a great number of European and American specimens, I can find no specific differences. Individuals of either kind are larger or smaller, their frontal plates differ in size and somewhat in form, as do the bill and the claws; but if the species are really different, Nature has made them so wonderfully like each other, that there seems to me no possibility of distinguishing them.
My friend Dr Neill has furnished me with the following anecdotes illustrative of the habits of this bird. “At Canonmills Loch, near Edinburgh, a pair (or sometimes two pairs) of water-hens breed yearly, making their nest on the branches of some very large saughs (willow-trees, Salix russeliana) growing in my garden, and overhanging the pond. One season (four or five years ago) finding themselves persecuted by a tame heron, which watched and devoured their first young brood (for we detected him in the act), they formed their next nest more than fifteen feet high on the trunk of the willow-tree. There the eggs were hatched in safety, four or five young being in due time seen sailing about with the old birds. We had only one pair on the Loch last summer. How they descended to the water can only be conjectured: they might have crept downwards three or four feet, but they must at all events have fallen at once from a height of not less than twelve feet. When the pond is frozen over and covered with skaters, the water-hens enter the garden and conceal themselves in an overgrown rock-work, subsisting on minced flesh mixed with bread or potatoes, purposely laid down for them, and on which I have often watched them feasting when the snow was lying deep.”
THE LARGE-BILLED GUILLEMOT.
Uria Brunnichii, Sabine.
PLATE CCXLV. Adult Male.
I have never observed this bird on any part of the coast of our Middle Districts, and, although I was told that it not unfrequently occurred about the Bay of Boston, I failed in my endeavours to procure it there. The specimen from which my figure was made was sent to me in ice, along with several other rare birds, from Eastport in Maine. I received it quite fresh and in excellent plumage, on the 18th of February 1833. It had been shot along with several other individuals of the same species while searching for food in the waters of Pasmaquody Bay, which were then covered with broken ice. Its flight was described by Mr Curtis, who sent it to me, as similar to that of the Foolish Guillemot, with which it associated. No other information was transmitted, excepting that it dived and swam like the other species. I afterwards sent the skin to my friend John Bachman, in whose collection it remains.