THE PIGEON GUILLEMOT. 927 
feet from the camera, and at the bottom of a fissure too narrow to admit the 
arm. Fallen masses of rock, if above the reach of high tide, are sure to 
shelter nesting birds between the inequalities of their support. In one in- 
stance, at least, an abandoned burrow of the Tufted Puffin was used. This 
burrow differed materially from the customary tunnel of the upper Sound 
region, in that it was driven obliquely downward in a sloping grassy hillside. 
Another rocky islet, “Bird Rock,” in Rosario Strait, presented so few crevices 
that the Guillemots were impelled to resort to certain constricted patches of 
rank grass. Here they forced their way between the growing stems until 
eee 
Taken near Port Williams. Photo by the Author. 
A TYPICAL NESTING BLUFF. 
they achieved cunningly over-arched passage-ways some three feet in length, 
at the end of which they were content to lay their eggs. 
In excavating a tunnel in a clay bank the bird uses beak and claws, and is 
forced at the outset to maintain herself in midair,—a task which, Iry reason 
of her shortened wings, she accomplishes with no little exertion and infinitely 
less grace than that, say, displayed by a Bank Swallow. Not infrequently, the 
bird encounters a boulder a few inches in, and then the task is all to do over 
again. If, however, excavation has progressed sufficiently the tunnel is con- 
tinued at right angles. These tunnels are driven at any height which pleases 
the Pigeon’s fancy, and most of them are accessible only by rope, altho Mr. 
