91 



GUILLEMOT. 



COMMON GUILLEMOT. FOOLISH GUILLEMOT. TARROCK. 

 SCOUT. LESSER GUILLEMOT. WILLOCK. SEA HEN. 



PLATES CCV AND CCVI. 



Una tro'de, .... Lathaii. Stephens. 

 Uria minor, .... Stephens. 



The Guillemot makes no nest, but lays her single 

 egg upon the barren rock. Countless numbers of these 

 birds breed together on the rocks or cliffs that abut 

 upon the ocean, thinking there to find that security, 

 which indeed they would find were it not for the 

 superiority of mind over instinct. Incubation continues 

 for a month. 



The eggs are very large in proportion to the size 

 of the bird,, and more than ordinarily narrowed at one 

 end and widened at the other. They vary in an extra- 

 ordinary manner, and a description of the principal 

 varieties only would be almost endless, "adeo sunt multa." 

 Some are entirely white, others more or less spotted 

 with brown, and others again bluish green, blotted and 

 streaked with dark reddish brown or black. Some 

 are entirely green. "The shape of the g'^'^, which is 

 very tapering, prevents it from rolling ofi' into the sea; 

 for when moved by the wind, or other circumstances, 

 it only rolls round its own circle, without changing its 

 first immediate situation." 



