The Razorbill and the Guillemot are common birds on most of our coasts where there are cliffs, but we shall see them chiefly as swimming and diving birds as we walk along the shore. The Razorbill (Alca torda) when swimming carries its tail parts higher out of the water than the Guillemot (Uria troile), and is further distinguished by the high compressed bill with white transverse stripes, the white stripe from the bill to the eye, and the dark brown throat. The Guillemot has a long, straight, pointed beak, white throat crossed by a greyish cravat, continued from the mottled black and white of the back of the head and neck. It is too common as a dead, sodden-plumaged bird in the rock-pools after winter storms, which prevent it fishing, and starve it to death. The legs and feet are greyish, the webs black.

The Black Guillemot (Uria grylle) breeds on cliffs in Scotland, Ireland, and Man, but in winter also visits the south and south-west coasts. Its summer dress is wholly black, save for a patch of white on the coverts, but in winter the black is all replaced by white and very pale grey. The legs and feet differ, too, from those of U. troile in being vermilion in the present species.

The Puffin (Fratercula arctica) is identified readily, wherever seen, by its conspicuous compressed orange beak of great depth from top to bottom. This gives it a humorous aspect that belongs to itself alone; but it is useful to it also, for it makes a very efficient cracking instrument wherewith certain of the thinner shelled bivalves may be utilised for the Puffin’s food. It is a great diver, and sometimes the habit is its ruin. I have a fine specimen that was drowned by running its head into the mesh of a mackerel-net, and failing to extricate itself in time to prevent death by drowning. Young specimens are sometimes blown in exhausted during winter gales. Many other birds are similarly overcome.

The pretty little Storm Petrel, or Mother Carey’s Chicken (Procellaria pelagica), whose stuffed body is before me as I write, was blown in early in November, 1895. I tried to restore it to vigour, but it was too far exhausted to take food, and this appears to be the common condition of those that are blown in. On the same day many Gulls, Guillemots, and Shags were washing into our “porth,” and several of these were cared for, restored to health, and given their liberty a few days later.

The Great Northern Diver (Colymbus glacialis) and the Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) are also winter visitants to most of our shores. It is thought the Diver may breed on some of our extreme northern islands, but there appears to be no evidence that it does so. It is a regular visitor to the Cornish coasts in winter, and it is well worth watching from some rocky headland. It is large and powerful, and excels not merely as a proficient diver with plenty of “staying power,” but is a vigorous swimmer, and a very capable flier. It is a pity those who see it are not more content with the sight, instead of being possessed with the desire to get a gun and shoot it. One would like to see it more often alive, and less frequently adorning the halls of country houses near the coast.

The Fulmar is not of such general occurrence as the Diver, except in the far north—St. Kilda, Orkney and Shetland. St. Kilda is its breeding-place, and they are merely stragglers that put in an appearance during winter on more southern shores. The hooked-bill and tubular nostrils distinguish it from the gulls at a glance.

The Manx Shearwater (Puffinus anglorum) breeds on islands all down the western coast as far south as Scilly; it is therefore a more frequent visitor to our southern and western coasts, especially before and after it is engaged on the important work of hatching and rearing its solitary chick.