Cormorants and Ctiilleviots. 51 



guillemot we shall see at once that its shape is peculiar, and that it 

 is considerably more pointed at the narrow end than the common 

 hen's egg; and to this peculiarity it is mainly indebted for pre- 

 servation, for on this account it is more likely when blown upon by 

 the wind to turn on its own axis,* than to roll on in any particular 

 direction. It may be as well to notice that scarcely any two eggs 

 are of the same colour. 



So fur our remarks apply to the common guillemot. The habits 

 of the black guillemot furnish us with additional points of interest, 

 for this bird does not like its "foolish" brother deposit its egg on 

 the bare rock but makes its nest in a hole in the face of a cliff' or 

 crag, and what is still more remarkable, the bird annually revisits 

 the same hole, and builds its nest there, and though there be many 

 holes placed together, the bird never fails in selecting the right 

 one. This peculiaiity of the black guillemot furnishes us with a 

 good illustration or parallel instance of the instinct of the swallow, 

 which, though it migrates every autumn, infallibly returns to its last 

 year's nest, and never fails to take possession of the right one, even 

 in cases where more than twelve nests are placed together under 

 the eaves of the same house. This sagacity or instinct of the swallow 

 was proved beyond a doubt by Spallanzani.f The swallows, accord- 

 ing to his experiments, returned to the same nests for eighteen years 

 in succession, and when a pair of swallows were taken from Pavia 

 to Milau and turned loose, they returned in thirteen minutes to their 

 young, the distance being about as many miles. 



One more peculiarity we nmst notice before we conclude. This 

 is the disputed point, as to whether the old birds convey their 

 young from the lofty ledges of rock where they are hatched, to the 

 sea beneath. The fishermen who frequent these rocks stoutly 

 affirm that such is the case, and that they see it done not unfre- 

 quently. Mr. Waterton;!; tells us, however, that though he watched 

 with a telescope for a considerable time, he never saw this little 

 manoeuvre carried into esecuiion, but that he saw Guillemots on 

 the water below so young and with so few feathers that he con- 

 sidered it impossible for them to have reached the sea without the 

 assistance of the parent bird, and that he therefore concluded that 

 the information furnished by the fishermen was correct. Mr. 

 Morris seems hardly determined on this point. I, however, must 

 say that I can hardly believe it to be possible : for even if the 

 young bird could mount upon its parent's back, a matter of no 

 small difficulty, I can hardly conceive how the old bird could 



• To illustrate tliis fact the author placed a common heu's egg and a guillemot's 

 egg side hy side on the talile. 



t Vide " JIauual of Zoology," by Milne Edwards, p. 316. 

 I Vide Yarrell's " British Birds," vol. iii., p. 452. 



