122 THE BIRDS OF THE OUTER FARNES 



Others seemed entirely absorbed in their eggs. 

 There was one bird in particular which we watched for 

 some time, the proud possessor of a brilliant green, 

 strongly-marked egg as usual, to all appearance quite 

 out of proportion to her own size which she arranged 

 and rearranged under her, trying with beak and wing 

 to tuck the sharp end between her legs, but never 

 quite satisfied that it was covered as it should be. 

 But for the wonderful provision for its safety in the 

 shape of the Guillemot's egg (a round flat-sided wedge, 

 which makes it, when pushed, turn round on the point, 

 instead of rolling, as eggs of the usual form if placed on 

 a bare rock would do), most of those we saw would 

 probably have been dashed to pieces long before. 



It was an old belief 1 that the eggs of such cliff- 

 haunting birds when first laid were coated with a 

 natural glue which, hardening at once, fixed them to 

 the rock. 



As is commonly the case with basaltic rocks, the 

 precipitous faces of the Pinnacles and the cliffs opposite 

 are lined with cracks running across and up and down, 

 and broken into steps and shelves, accessible only to 

 birds or the boldest trained climbers. These, with the 

 exception of a few of the larger upper ledges, which go 

 with the tops of the Pinnacles, and are part of the family 

 estates of the Guillemots, are tenanted by Kittiwakes. 

 Their nests, which are also of grasses or dry seaweed, 



' Locus nempe, (ut dixi) csemento albo incrustatur, ovumque cum 

 nascitur lenta et viscosa madet humiditate qua cito concrescente, 

 tanquam ferrumine quodam substrate saxo agglutinatur. ' Harvey, De 

 Generations Animcdiorum. 



