COMMON GUILLEMOT. 349 



deposit the eggs (they only lay one) on some narrow 

 ledge of rock overhanging the sea, or on the top of 

 some inaccessible pinnacle, where it might be expected 

 that more would come to grief than is the case. The 

 egg is extraordinarily large for the size of the bird, and 

 as the bird literally sits upon it — not crouching but 

 sitting bolt upright on its tail — it would be impossible 

 for it to cover two. 



It has been called the Foolish Guillemot on account 

 of its disregard of danger, the bird remaining upon its 

 egg until it can be approached near enough to be 

 knocked over with a stick or stone. " It will remain," 

 says Hewitson, " so stupidly seated as to allow a noose 

 at the end of a long stick to be passed round its neck, by 

 which means immense numbers of them are annually 

 taken by the inhabitants of St. Kilda, who subsist 

 almost entirely on sea birds." It would appear, how- 

 ever, from some observations by Seebohm that they 

 are not quite so foolish as we might suppose from this. 

 He says that when sitting these birds turn their faces 

 to the rock away from the sea, thus hiding the showy 

 part of their plumage ; in this way a very fair estimate 

 of the number of eggs on a ledge can be formed. 



The eggs are laid very close together in some parts. 

 They are reckoned great delicacies as articles of food, 

 and are gathered at regular intervals by men let 

 down from the top of the cliff by a rope passed over 

 a pulley ; after the first lay has been gathered a second 

 and a third are generally laid. At Flamborough Head 

 "from two to three hundred eggs a day" are considered 

 a good take for one man. 



It is quite impossible to describe the eggs of the 

 Guillemot. Hardly any two are alike. They go 

 through almost every possible variation of ground 



