Crossword clues for guillemot
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Guillemot \Guil"le*mot`\, n. [F.] (Zo["o]l.) One of several northern sea birds, allied to the auks. They have short legs, placed far back, and are expert divers and swimmers.
Note: The common guillemots, or murres, belong to the genus Uria (as U. troile); the black or foolish guillemot ( Cepphus grylle, formerly Uria grylle), is called also sea pigeon and eligny. See Murre.
WordNet
n. small black or brown speckled auks of northern seas
Wikipedia
Guillemots is the common name for several species of seabird in the auk family (part of the order Charadriiformes). In British use, the term comprises two genera: Uria and Cepphus. In North America the Uria species are called "murres" and only the Cepphus species are called "guillemots". This word of French origin apparently derives from a form of the name William, cf. .
The two living species of Uria, together with the razorbill, dovekie and the extinct great auk, make up the tribe Alcini. They have distinctly white bellies, thicker and longer bills than Cepphus, and form very dense colonies on cliffs during the reproductive season.
The three living species of Cepphus form a tribe of their own: Cepphini. They are smaller than the Uria species and have black bellies, rounder heads and bright red feet.
In July 2013, Dr Steven Portugal from the Royal Veterinary College demonstrated that when water touches the eggs, it forms into droplets rather than running off; in other words, guillemot eggs are water-repellent and self-cleaning.
Guillemot may refer to:
- Guillemot, a seabird
- Joseph Guillemot (1899–1975), French athlete
- Guillemots (band), a British rock band
Usage examples of "guillemot".
They had missed the spectacular breeding colonies of the spring when the cliffs were white with nesting guillemots and razorbills and the puffin burrows honeycombed the turf, but there were other visitors now: the migrant goldcrests and fieldfares and buntings -and the seals, hundreds of them, returning to have their pups.
They had missed the spectacular breeding colonies of the spring when the cliffs were white with nesting guillemots and razorbills and the puffin burrows honeycombed the turf, but there were other visitors now: the migrant goldcrests and fieldfares and buntings -and the seals, hundreds of them, returning to have their pups.
For instance, gannets and guillemots incubate one egg at a time, swifts three, great tits half a dozen or more.
At the time the islanders left Laerg there were only five men left between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, and remembering those long, almost ape-like arms, those huge hands and the enormous breadth of his shoulders, I could well imagine the old devil swinging down the face of a thousand-foot cliff, his grizzled beard glistening with the vapour that swirled about him as he sought some almost invisible ledge where the guillemots or solan geese were nesting.
Into the vista he was crowding everything Erasmus had described to him, the whales and belugas and seals and walrus churning through the water, the fulmars and guillemots whirring and diving, the murres and kittiwakes guarding their eggs from the foxes.
Two pairs of black guillemots, striking in their winter plumage, swam along the sea edge, mirrored in the calm water.
She spied huge-winged kittiwakes, fulmars and jet-black guillemots.
Guillemots, gannets, puffins, razor-bills, little auks, kittiwakes.
The wall itself was pocked with ledges and pits where birds nested: guillemots, murres, kittiwakes and gulls.
We might find Little Auks up there, though — and razorbills — and thousands of guillemots on the cliffs.
For some time he contemplated the birds: a few razorbills and guillemots as well as the puffins - remarkably few gulls of any kind - the oyster-catchers' parents (he was confident of the chicks' well-being, having seen the neat shells from which they had hatched) - some rock-doves, and a small band of choughs.