COMMON AND BRUNNICH'S GUILLEMOTS. 395 



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. 



The cliffs at Bempton, another noted nursery of the Guillemot, are very 

 much like those at Flamborough, a nearly perpendicular wall of chalk and 

 flint between 300 and iOO feet high. This great sea-Avall is fast crumbling 

 away with the action of wind and tide ; it looks as if it had been built of 

 flints, with chalk for mortar. Sometimes there seems to be as much 

 mortar as stone, and often there is scarcely any, and, in fact, it then looks 

 like a dry Avail. The outline of the coast is very irregular ; some parts of 

 the cliffs are harder than others, and stand out to sea as promontories, 

 while others are soft and have apparently been washed away into eaves and 

 little fjords. Here and there the cliffs have cracked, and then you can look 

 down and in some places climb down through the rift to the sea. The top 

 is covered with a thick bed of soil, which slopes steep down to the edge of 

 the cliff', and is generally grown over with grass cropped short by rabbits. 

 This steep slope is rather dangerous, and it is seldom that a view of the 

 face of the rock can be obtained, except from the opposite promontory. 

 On the ledges of these precipitous cliffs the Guillemots breed in great 

 numbers, sometimes so densely crow-ded together as to remind one of a 

 swarm of bees : they fly about in all directions, and numbers constantly 

 arrive and others leave the ledges ; whilst far away in the sea, down at the 

 bottom of the cliffs, hundreds of birds are swimming about, the whole 

 scene being full of life and activity and bustle. 



The eggs of the Guillemot are much sought after as articles of food. 

 The manner in which they are taken from the cliffs at Flamborough is 

 very interesting. A party of " dimmers '^ consists of three, two at the 

 top and one suspended in mid-air. The bcter, in consequence of the 

 greater risk he has to run, takes one half of the eggs as his share. This 

 adventurous man must have a clear head, or he Avould become giddy at 

 the fearful depths below him ; he must not be too heavy, or he would tire 

 out the two men who have to lower and raise him some 200 feet or more 

 twenty times a day; whilst, at the same time, he must have a good 

 knowledge of the various ledges and crannies where the birds breed. He 

 first puts on what he calls his " breeches," a belt of flat rope Avitli a small 

 loop at each end, to which the cord by which he is suspended is attached, 

 and two large loops, through which he puts his legs. An iron bar is 

 driven into the ground, to which a rope is attached to hang down the cliff 

 to assist him in raising himself, and with which to make signals to the 

 men above when he wants them to raise or lower him. A pulley running 

 on a swivel attached to an iron spike is fastened on the edge of the precipice, 

 so that the rope may not chafe. 



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