188 THE BIRDS OF CUMBERLAND. 



About twenty years since, one of the Sandwith 

 lighthouse keepers used to descend with a rope, 

 and took many eggs. During winter, we find a few 

 Razorbills washed up on our west coast, and Mr. 

 Harris describes the destruction which occurred in 

 the early autumn of 1862 : — '' In September, im- 

 mediately after the equinox, large numbers of 

 Common Guillemots, with a smaller proportion of 

 the Razorbill, were washed up on the shore. Most 

 of them were dead ; but three or four, too much 

 exhausted to make any effort to regain the retiring 

 tide, but somewhat restored by their rest of three 

 or four hours, showed great delight in being taken 

 down to the water and set at liberty, seeming little 

 the worse for their terrible buffetting. In the space 

 of about half a mile between Flimby and Workington, 

 I counted over a hundred lying on the shingle at 

 high-water mark ; and if the same thing occurred 

 along other portions of the coastline, the destruc- 

 tion amongst these two species must have been 

 enormous." 



Genus LOMVIA. 



L. Troile. Common Guillemot. 



The Common Guillemot is an abundant resident, 

 breeding at a single point on our coast at St. Bees 

 Head. 



Edmund Sandford (1675) furnishes some inter- 

 esting information about this colony, which has 

 existed from time immemorial : — " The aire of the 

 sea is strong as to bear up diuers sorts of fowles 



