322 URIA TROILE. 



fishes, and otlier marine animals brought by their parents. 

 Often young birds of very small size, unfledged, or in various 

 stages, may be seen swimming about in the vicinity of the 

 rocks, and it has been alleged that they are usually carried 

 to the sea by their parents ; but I think these are rather 

 accidental cases, for by far the greater number remain in their 

 stations until they can fly. Mr. Waterton says, the men 

 about Flamborough Head assured him 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." 

 I do not think the young could hold on in such a situation. 

 Others say the old Guillemot takes her chick by the neck in 

 her bill, and thus conveys it to the sea. No one has seen a 

 descent in either w^ay. 



Dr. Edmondston, Balta Sound, has, among notes with 

 which he has favoured me, the following : — " Colymhus Troile. 

 — This species is very numerous on some of the clifis. It lays 

 one very large egg on rocky shelves, without forming any 

 nest. The shell is thick and rough, and thus able to bear a 

 little rolling, which it doubtless receives now and then on its 

 downy bed. I do not believe what some fishermen have 

 asserted, that it is glued to the spot when it is dropped. The 

 would-be practical and the ignorant are just as egg-full of 

 theory as those whom they sarcastically call the learned. 

 The young is takeii by the parent to sea when it is fledged ; 

 but, like that of the Razorbill, long before full growth. In 

 general, both these convey their young to the water by seizing 

 them by the skin of the back of the neck, as a cat does a 

 kitten ; but occasionally the young manage to balance them- 

 selves into the ocean. The eggs are excellent eating, not in 

 the least fishy-tasted, much more delicately-flavoured than 

 those of Ducks." They must be boiled hard, however, and 

 then the white is firm, semi-transparent, of a bluish tint, 

 the yolk granular and oily. 



Mr. Audubon has a curious theory about these eggs. He 

 found some of them white, as they may be seen occasionally 

 in any breeding-place. " My opinion," he says, " is, that 

 w hen first dropped they are always pure white, for on open- 

 ing a good number of these birds, I found several containing 



