164 Mr. Edward Bidwell 



that we visited on one of my visits to these islands was that of the 

 Guillemots. Whilst our little craft was scudding along before the 

 wind, the mast bending to the sail, and sometimes too far removed 

 from the perpendicular to be altogether agreeable to our landsmen's, 

 nerves, especially when our lee bulwark dived just under water for a 

 second or two and the spray dashed over us, we could see, some two 

 miles ahead, a group of rocks called " The Pinnacles," standing out 

 conspicuously, like great white-washed rocks in front of one of the 

 islands. They stand some 50 feet from the cliffs of the adjoining island, 

 of which they at one time probably formed a part, and are some 40 feet 

 high, the summit of each being a tolerably level platform, about 12 

 or 15 feet square. The top and more than half-way down the sides 

 is completely white-washed with the excrement of the birds, and on 

 the leeward side the smell of guano is strong, but not very offensively 

 so, as the lime almost overpowers the ammonia and entirely absorbs 

 the sulphuretted hydrogen. The top of these "Pinnacles'" at the 

 time of our visit was one dense mass of Guillemots, and as we 

 approached all became excitement. Streams of Guillemots poured 

 off every corner in long strings like Wild Ducks, but for some time 

 the dense mass seemed to get no less. In every direction shoals of 

 Guillemots were hurrying and skurrying away over the sea almost as 

 far as the eye could reach. Some desperate individuals took a 

 header from the top of the rocks and flinging out their legs so as to 

 make a three-fold rudder with their tail, plunged at once into the sea 

 and dived out of danger. By the time we had landed an anchor the 

 rocks were nearly cleared, and for a mile or more away the sea 

 seemed covered with birds. The flight of the Guillemot is heavy 

 and laborious, though rapid, reminding one of that of a Kingfisher or 

 a Hawk Moth. We were able to climb some distance up the 

 " Pinnacles," and a good ladder we brought with us from the next 

 island landed us at the top. On the lime-washed top of each 

 pinnacle were some thirty or forty eggs, looking exactly as if a smart 

 gust of wind would sweep off the lot. Not the remotest vestige of 

 a nest of any kind was there. The rock having recently been cleared 

 of eggs those we found were nearly all fresh laid, very clear and 

 looking most beautiful on the dark rock, especially the dark green 

 eggs. The Guillemot only lays one egg, indeed it could not sit upon 

 two, the egg being enormously large for the size of the bird, which 

 does not sit upon it on its breast, like a duck for instance, but rests 

 upright on its tail. As we were leaving the rocks we saw an anxious 

 maternal Guillemot alight behind her egg, which, with a quiet poke 

 of her bill, she pushed between her legs. The Guillemot's egg is 

 laid bare and exposed on the face or summit of the cliff, without any 

 attempt being made to conceal it, nor is it fastened to the cliff by 

 any glutinous substance, as we are sometimes told is the case by 

 persons who have never visited the bird's lofty nesting-place." 



That well-known variety of this bird with a narrow white 

 ring round its eye continued in the form of a narrow line 

 down the neck for about an inch, by many people thought to be 

 a distinct species and commonly called the Ringed Guillemot, 

 occurs, Mr. Seebohm says, in about the proportion of one to ten. 



The Razor Bill (Alca torda, LinncEJis) though, in many other 

 localities breeding with the Guillemot — which it resembles in 



