206 REPTILES AND BIRDS, 
Among the Guillemots the female lays only one large egg. They 
feed on fishes, insects, and on crustacea. ‘They principally inhabit 
northern regions, visiting our shores and other temperate climates 
when the ice has invaded their summer home. In their migratory 
journeys they must trust to their wings—which, however, as already 
observed, are very short. ‘They are consequently not possessed ot 
long powers of flight, and skim the water, rarely rising much above 
the surface. ‘Their progress, however, is rapid, but of short duration. 
The Guillemots during winter are frequently seen in immense 
numbers on Rockall Bank and on the banks of Newfoundland. So 
little. are they alarmed at the approach of a vessel, that should they 
be directly in her track, they will only dive to save themselves. 
These banks are several hundred miles from land. 
The whole race of aquatic birds of which we have spoken, 
whether Divers, Penguins, Grebes, or Guillemots, are, in these northern 
regions, a valuable source of revenue to the poor people whom lot 
compels to live there, for they obtain in their feathers, skin, oil, and 
eggs, clothing, food, and light. But to obtain what they truly consider 
a blessing from heaven they have to surmount innumerable difficul- 
ties, the birds often building their nests in islets almost unapproach- 
able, or on rocks rising perpendicularly out of the water. Slung upon 
seats hung from the summits of these crags, the courageous islanders 
suspend themselves, to gather and make, so to speak, a harvest of 
the sea-fowls’ eggs. Others traverse the face of the rocky coast fur- 
nished with a conical net attached to the end of a pole, and secure 
the birds flying around them, much in the same manner as boys 
catch butterflies in the meadows. 
But chasing these graceful swimmers at the foot of their rocky 
retreat is mere trifling in comparison with the dramatic and dangerous 
incidents which occur on the summits of the steep giant cliffs. The 
intrepid inhabitants of the Faroe Islands, which are situated in the 
Atlantic Ocean, to the north of Scotland, between Norway and Ice- 
land, proceed as follows when in search for eggs: The fowler begins 
operations by swarming, as schoolboys call it, up a pole, which car- 
ries him to the first projecting ledge of rocks which will afford a 
foot-hold. This point attained, he throws a knotted rope to his com- 
panions, who soon join him on his perch. ‘The same manceuvre is 
performed, stage by stage, until they reach the summit. But this is 
nothing in comparison to the danger which is to come, viz., visiting 
the recesses in which the nests are found. 
Upon the edge of the rock a beam is run out horizontally; to 
this beam a two-inch rope, which is not less than goo feet in 
