IN THE SHETLANDS 177 
so that soon the whole cliff will be empty. That, 
however, will be nothing to me. But my little chick ! 
Would I had seen it go! 
A guillemot now flies up to the ledge underneath 
this one, and which I cannot see for this—for I have 
returned to my original position—and as it disappears 
there, there is a great jodel-ing from several birds— 
I cannot say how many. On going round to the 
point of rock which fronts them both, I see that there 
is another young guillemot on this lower ledge, 
squeezed into the corner angle of it, which I think 
I have missed all along. It is, indeed, extremely easy 
to miss a chick, even when one seems to see the whole 
ledge very plainly. Nevertheless, there can be no 
doubt that one of the two on my ledge is gone. My 
own little one—still under its mother’s left wing—is 
the only one left there now. After a while it comes 
out, and the mother, as she stands by it, from time to 
time just stirs or nibbles the feathers of its face with 
the end of her bill—an action which has all the spirit 
of wiping a child’s face or nose. The father now 
walks up, stops in front of the chick, bends down its 
head, and jode/s. Then it lifts it up and jode/s more 
loudly ; then, stooping again, preens the chick’s head 
and face a little with the point of its bill, and nibbles 
at it affectionately. The chick, after this, goes off on 
a little excursion along the ledge, then toddles back 
again, and, on getting near home, makes a little run to 
one of its parents, who, again bending down its head 
with the neck curved over it till the point of its bill 
N 
