300 THE COMMON GUILLEMOT. 



fluttered along the surface ere they acquired an impetus for 

 flight ; others swam about the boat in the most confiding 

 manner, and delighted us all with their graceful move- 

 ments." ^ He likewise refers to the Guillemot as being 

 more numerous than any other kind of bird at the Head, 

 and the Kittiwake Gull standing next to it in numbers.^ 

 An interesting paper on " St. Abb's Head and its Bird Life " 

 was read to the Natural History Society of Glasgow by Mr. 

 Harvie-Brown on the 26th of April 1881, who, in alluding 

 to his own observations on the occasion of a visit to the 

 Head on the 25th of July 1880, remarks that "The 

 Guillemot must be much scarcer now than in Hepburn's 

 time." 3 



Judging from the above records, and from what I have 

 noticed during the last few years when occasionally visiting 

 St. Abb's Head in the breeding season, as well as from in- 

 formation obtained from old fishermen who have frequented 

 the Head all their lives, it would appear that the Guillemot 

 has greatly diminished in numbers within the last thirty or 

 forty years. It is difficult to account for this decrease 

 satisfactorily, but probably it may have proceeded from 

 various causes, amongst which may be mentioned the vast 

 quantities of Guillemots' eggs which were formerly taken by 

 the fishermen,* and also the marked increase of the Herring 

 Gull, whose nest-robbing propensities are well known. 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. iii. p. 73. - Ibid. vol. iii. p. 74. 



3 Proceedings of the JVattiral History Society of Glasgow, 26th April 1881. 



* Mr. Robert Thorburn, fisherman, Coldiughani Shore, who is seventy-eight 

 years old, and has fished in the neighbourhood of St. Abb's Head all his life, told 

 me on the 11th of August 1886, when he accompanied me to the Head, that, about 

 forty years ago, he took as many as 180 Guillemots' eggs off Foul Carr in one day, 

 and that he sold the eggs for Id. each. The eggs of the Guillemots, which occupy 

 the ledges of the precipitous cliffs at the Ramparts, appear to be taken at present 

 by men or boys descending with ropes to the nests, for I have freqiiently observed 

 strong wooden stakes firmly driven into the ground on the top of precipices to 

 which ropes had evidently been hitched. Mr. Hardy's MS. Azotes bear that about 

 1837 Guillemots' eggs were sold at 4d. per dozen. 



