BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND i6i 



ledged and terraced rocks upon which the brave guillemots 

 congregate. As the boat approaches the sea-girt nesting- 

 home of these delightful birds, the cliff, looked at through 

 glasses, seems garrisoned by a multitude of little soldiers 

 in black and white. They are standing to attention, shoulder 

 to shoulder, along every ledge, in level lines where continuous 

 foothold permits it, in little knots on every broader plateau, 

 while the summit is thronwd. As the boat o-ets nearer 

 you see that, besides the white-breasted birds standing up- 

 right, there are just as many showing their black backs 

 sitting on the ground, or rather propped up on their tails. 



The latter are sitting-birds, for the eees are so laree as 

 compared with the mothers that they cannot be sate upon 

 in the ordinary brooding manner of other fowls. So the 

 guillemot, when she wishes to sit, walks up to her egg and 

 then with her beak pushes it between her legs, and so 

 straddling as it were over it, she remains always at an 

 anq-le, her bodv resting;- ao"ainst the eo;cr instead of nestline 

 down upon it. 



Long before the invaders' boat comes into the shadow 

 of the clift", the birds take alarm at the visitation, and at 

 first by dozens, then by hundreds, and finally by their 

 thousands, spring upwards or dive downwards from their 

 places, and fill the air with an indescribable murmur and 

 flurry of wings — 



