COMMON GUILLEMOT. 71 



kind of glue-like secretion provided by the bird ; as a matter 

 of fact, when the birds are suddenly and wantonly disturbed 

 by the firing of a gun close to their breeding-places, the eggs 

 may be seen to fall in showers, as the Editor has often wit- 

 nessed at Lundy Island, where this disturbance, in order to 

 show the number of rock-birds, is one of the amusements of 

 the gaping tourist. So thick is the shell of the egg, that it 

 often endures the contact with the water, and Mr. J. H. 

 Gurney has a specimen dredged up at Lowestoft. It may 

 be accepted as a fact that each bird recognizes its own egg, 

 for Messrs. Theodore Walker and G. Maclachlan marked a 

 number of birds on the ledges at Barra Head by splashing 

 red paint over them, and the same individuals were found 

 at their accustomed post day after day. Mr. Seebohm says 

 that at Flamborough, Lowney the veteran cliff-climber is of 

 opinion that if the egg is taken, the same bird will lay a 

 second about nine days later, and this agrees with the expe- 

 rience of Mr. Maclachlan ; but if the second egg is taken the 

 bird lays no more that season. If undisturbed, the same 

 birds return year by year to the same ledge, and deposit 

 their egg in the same spot, but if the eggs are taken the 

 birds will shift their ground : it may be only to the next 

 ledge. It is also pretty well established that the same bird 

 lays a similar egg year after year. Large numbers of eggs 

 collected at Lundy Island are taken to Bristol, where they 

 are said to be used for clarifying wine ; and at Flamborough 

 Mr. Cordeaux was informed that many were sent to Leeds, 

 the albumen being employed in the preparation of patent 

 leather. According to some good observers, the male does 

 not take his share of incubation, nor does he feed the female 

 when sitting, but perhaps this neglect of his apparent duties 

 may not be universal. 



The young birds, at first covered with down, or bristly hair 

 rather, from the manner in which it resists saturation with 

 water, are fed for a time on the rocks by the parent birds with 

 portions of fish. Mr. Waterton, in his account of his visit to 

 the rock-bird-breeding localities about Flamborough Head, 

 says, " The men there assured me that when the young 



