The Farne Islands, Fowlsheugh, Stonehaven; the Orkneys, the 
Shetlands, or the Hebrides, are all renowned resorts. Here are 
thrilling sights indeed. Guillemots, razor-bills, and puffins are 
congregated in swarms, which must be seen to be believed. Few 
birds are more easy to tell at sight as they scuttle past one on 
the way down to the water from the cliffs, or returning laden with 
food for their young. The puffin is easily the most conspicuous, 
since he flies with his little yellow legs stuck out on each side of his 
apology for a tail. And for a further token there is his great red 
and yellow beak. The guillemot has a sooty brown head and 
neck—in his breeding dress—slate-grey back and white under 
parts, and a pointed beak; while the razor-bill, similarly coloured, 
is to be distinguished by the narrow white lines down his highly 
compressed beak. By good fortune, the white-winged black 
guillemot may be found among the host. His white wings con- 
trasting with the black plumage of the rest of the body, and his 
red legs, suffice to identify him. 
On the Farne Islands, as well as on the Orkneys and Shetlands, 
you may be sure of finding the Eider-duck, one of the most singular, 
and most beautiful members of the duck family. It is singular 
because of its coloration ; the under parts of the body being of a 
velvet black, while the upper parts are white, thus exactly 
“ 
reversing the normal distribution of these “colours.” The rosy 
hue which suffuses the fore-part of the breast, and the bright 
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