182 BIRD WATCHING 



the worsted bird's ascending the rock to get to his 

 nest, the victorious one ran, or rather waddled, at him, 

 putting him to a short flight up to it. But, though 

 defeated, this bird was cordially received by his own 

 partner, who threw up her head and opened her bill 

 at him in the same way, as though sympathising, 

 and saying, " Don't mind him ; he 's rude." In such 

 affairs, either bird is safe as soon as he gets within 

 close distance of his own nest, for it would be against 

 all precedent, and something monstrous, that he 

 should be followed beyond a certain charmed line 

 drawn around it. 



Nothing is more interesting than to look down 

 from the summit of some precipice on to a ledge at 

 no great distance below, which is quite crowded with 

 guillemots. Roughly speaking, the birds form two 

 long rows, but these rows are very irregular in depth 

 and formation, and swell here and there into little 

 knots and clusters, besides often merging into or 

 becoming mixed with each other, so that the idea of 

 symmetry conveyed is of a very modified kind, and 

 may be sometimes broken down altogether. In the 

 first row, a certain number of the birds sit close 

 against and directly fronting the wall of the preci- 

 pice, into the angle of which with the ledge they 

 often squeeze themselves. Several will be closely 

 pressed together so that the head of one is often 

 resting against the neck or shoulder of another, which 

 other will also be making a pillow of a third, and so 

 on. Others stand here and there behind the seated 

 ones, each being, as a rule, close to his or her partner. 

 There is another irregular row about the centre of the 

 ledge, and equally here it is to be remarked that the 



