Visit to the Haunts of the Guillemot. 165 



idea of their beautifully blended variety of colouring. The 

 pen has no chance of success in attempting the description. 



The rock-climbers assure you that the guillemot, when un- 

 disturbed, never lays more than one egg ; but that, if it be 

 taken away, she will lay another ; and, if she be plundered of 

 that, she will then produce a third ; and so on. If you dis- 

 sect a guillemot, you will find a knot of eggs within her. The 

 rock-climbers affirm that the bird can retain these eggs, or 

 produce them, according to circumstances. Thus, if she be 

 allowed to hatch her first egg, she lays no more for the sea- 

 son ; if that egg be lost or taken away, another is laid to 

 supply its place. 



The men also assure you that, when the young guillemot 

 gets to a certain size, it manages to climb upon the back of 

 the old bird, which conveys it down to the ocean. Having 

 carried a good telescope with me, through it I saw numbers 

 of young guillemots, diving and sporting on the sea, quite 

 unable to fly ; and I observed others on the ledges of the 

 rocks, as I went down among them, in such situations that, 

 had they attempted to fall into the waves beneath, they would 

 have been killed by striking against the projecting points of 

 the intervening sharp and rugged rocks: wherefore I con- 

 cluded that the information of the rock-climbers was to be 

 depended upon ; and I more easily gave credit to it, because 

 I myself have seen an old swan sailing on the water with her 

 young ones upon her back, about a week after they were 

 hatched. 



He who rejoices when he sees all nature smiling around 

 him, and who takes an interest in contemplating the birds of 

 heaven as they wing their way before him, will feel sad at 

 heart on learning the unmerited persecution to which these 

 harmless seafowl are exposed. Parties of sportsmen, from 

 all quarters of the kingdom, visit Flamborough and its vi- 

 cinity during the summer months, and spread sad devastation 

 all around them. No profit attends the carnage ; the poor 

 unfortunate birds serve merely as marks to aim at, and they 

 are generally left where they fall. Did these heartless gun- 

 men reflect, but for one moment, how many innocent birds 

 their shot destroys ; how many fall disabled on the wave, 

 there to linger for hours, perhaps for days, in torture and in 

 anguish; did they but consider how many helpless young 

 ones will never see again their parents coming to the rock 

 with food ; they would, methinks, adopt some other plan to 

 try their skill, or cheat the lingering hour. 



Walton Hall, Jan. 8. 1835. 



M 3 



