300 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



estuary. Towards sundown, however, some at any 

 rate return to the region of domestic cares. 

 Others, however, sleep on the rocking billows well 

 out on the ocean, while even those which do roost 

 in a rocky retreat retire there really late. 



The flight of the " tystie " as the Black 

 Guillemot is sometimes called is performed by 

 a continuous series of quick wing-beats, and is, 

 except when the bird rises towards a cliff, at a low 

 elevation above the sea. If a trifle laboured and 

 erratic, it is none the less distinctly rapid, and there 

 is suggested the appearance of some gigantic, 

 piebald moth a-flying, a likeness which becomes 

 the more telling when the bird as it often does 

 proceeds as if lopsided, now the right wing and 

 its contiguous parts being slightly elevated, now 

 the left. 



A pair engaged in amorous antics is a pleasing 

 spectacle. The male, recognizable by reason of 

 his brighter plumage there being no difference in 

 the colour of the two sexes swims furiously after 

 his lady-love, at times even literally running along 

 the water in his ardour. He fails to catch her. 

 Presently she dives like thought, he after her in 

 hot pursuit, still, however, with no avail. Then 

 he tries fresh tactics. Waiting till she is up and 

 floating he hovers momentarily in the air above her, 

 intending to drop suddenly on her back. Clumsy 

 fellow that he is, he misses his mark, and once 

 again she eludes his advances by diving. So the 



