168 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 
gality of Nature, which covers desolate rocks with such a pro- 
fusion of life. The vast number of sea-birds is the more 
surprising, as many species, such as the 
guillemot, the auk, the fulmar, and the 
puffin, lay but one single egg on the naked 
rock, and often in so precarious a situa- 
tion, that it is almost inconceivable how 
breeding can take place. When the birds 
are surprised and suddenly fly off, many of 
the eggs tumble down into the surf. Sea- 
eagles, falcons, and raptorial gulls destroy 
a great number, and pounce upon tlie 
Kale. young; thousands fall a prey to the rigours 
of an Arctic winter; the spring-tides 
sweeping over low shores, often carry away whole generations 
at once, and many a maritime population lives entirely upon 
the sea-fowl that breed upon the sterile soil. And yet, in spite 
of so many enemies and persecutions, their numbers remain 
undiminished, nor has their importance ever ceased in the 
domestic economy of the rude islanders of the north. 
Sea-Fowl Shooting. 
But however valuable the eggs and the oil, the feathers and the 
flesh of the hyperborean bird-republics may be to man, they are 
far from equalling in importance the guano- producing sea-fowl of 
the tropical seas. This inestimable manure, which has become 
so indispensable to the British agriculturist, is found scattered: 
