BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 165 



without any of the intermediate specks and streaks and zig- 

 zags that are characteristic of this bird's eggs. They are 

 not laid in any nest, but on the bare flat rock, sometimes 

 protected from the violence of the wind by lying in an 

 indentation or where the rock is rough faced. But as a 

 rule the guillemot does not seem to expect her egg to be 

 blown off the spot where it is laid, and (though there are 

 woful exceptions) she is right, for in due time a dusky 

 fuzz-ball, with a noble appetite for little fishes, takes the 

 place of each egg. 



Then it is, alas for the poor parent guillemots ! that the 

 sea-eagle comes on its broad pinions, yelping, and, swift 

 as the wind, swoops down, grazing the surface of the rock, 

 and, regardless of the indignant mob that rises in protest, 

 flaps off with careless wing back to the eyrie, where its 

 eaglets are waiting for food. And every time the sea-eagle 

 comes and goes there is one fuzz-ball less than there was. 



" She seeks her aerie hanging 

 In the mountain-cedar's hair 



And her brood expect the clanging 

 Of her wings through the wild air, 



Sick with famine." 



But if tens are taken, thousands are left, and ere long 

 the old birds, finding their young ones restless, and fearing, 



