BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 163 



seen still bravely "holding the fort," not with any defiance, 

 but a calni, good-soldierly courage that commands respect. 

 And now and again a mother will return, too anxious about 

 her egg to remember the risk to herself, or, remembering 

 it, too anxious to care about the risk ; she comes with hurrying 

 wing, and, before the very eyes of the unmannerly trespasser, 

 takes possession of her treasure, and tucking it in between 

 her legs turns her back upon the company and trusts to 

 Kismet for the result. 



But those gaunt and grim-faced rocks, ribbed and wrinkled 

 by the wear-and-tear of sea and weather, are only the 

 nurseries of the guillemots, not their homes ; for they live 

 for nine months of the year upon the dancing sea, never 

 coming back to the solid crags at all. Early in spring the 

 first of them, the advanced couriers of the colony, reappear 

 from the ocean, reconnoitring their egg-towers, and then they 

 disappear again, as if to convey the news to the rest that 

 the earth still stands where it did. And then about May 

 the guillemots begin to come in earnest, and, astounding as 

 the fact is, each bird actually seems to remember the very 

 spot upon which it laid its eggs the year before, for we are told 

 that the professional egg-hunters, who for a score of years 

 or more have regularly rifled the sea-birds' terraces, are 

 accustomed to find, year after year, in particular places, eggs 

 of a particular shape, or size, or colour. For there are few 

 eggs, if any, that differ so boldly both in the ground colour 



