164 Visit to the Haunts of the Guillemot* 



the rock that seems ready to give way. One of the climbers, 

 while he was imparting to me instructions how to act, grinned 

 purposely, and showed his upper jaw. I learned by his story, 

 that, last year, a falling stone had driven two of his front 

 teeth down his throat ; while the poor rascal, with all his 

 dexterity, was unable to fend off the blow. 

 , As I was lowered down, the grandeur and sublimity of the 

 ,scene beggared all description, and amply repaid any little 

 unpleasant sensations which arose on the score of danger. 

 The sea was roaring at the base of this stupendous wall of 

 rocks ; thousands and tens of thousands of wildfowl were in 

 an instant on the wing : the kittiwakes and jackdaws rose in 

 circling flight; while most of the guillemots, razorbills, and 

 puffins left the ledges of the rocks, in a straight and downward 

 line, with a peculiarly quick motion of the pinions, till they 

 plunged into the ocean. It was easy to distinguish the puffins 

 from the razorbills in their descent: these presented a back 

 of a uniformly dark colour; those had a faint white diagonal 

 line running across the wings. The nests of the kittiwakes 

 were close to each other, on every part of the rocks which 

 was capable of holding them ; and they were so numerous, 

 as totally to defy any attempt to count them. On the bare 

 and level ledge of the rocks, often not more than six inches 

 wide, lay the eggs of the guillemots : some were placed parallel 

 with the range of the shelf, others nearly so, and others with 

 their blunt and sharp ends indiscriminately pointing to the 

 sea. By no glutinous matter, nor any foreign body whatever, 

 were they affixed to the rock : bare they lay, and unattached, 

 as on the palm of your outstretched hand. You might see 

 nine or ten, or sometimes twelve, old guillemots in a line, so 

 near to each other that their wings seemed to touch those of 

 their neighbours ; and when they flew off" at your approach, 

 you would see as many eggs as you had counted birds sitting 

 on the ledge. 



The eggs vary in size and shape and colour beyond all be- 

 lief. Some are large, others small ; some exceedingly sharp 

 at one end, and others nearly rotund. Where one is green, 

 streaked and blotched with black, another has a milk-white 

 ground, blotched and streaked with light brown. Others, 

 again, present a very pale green colour, without any markings 

 at all ; while others are of a somewhat darker green, with 

 streaks and blotches of a remarkably faded brown. In a 

 word, nature seems to have introduced such an endless inter- 

 mixture of white, brown, green, yellow, and black into the 

 shells of the eggs of the guillemots, that it absolutely requires 

 the aid of the well-set pallet of a painter to give an adequate 



