ON THE ISLAND OF HANDA. 65 



The guillemots stood in long lines along the shelves of the 

 rocks frequently within a few feet of the top whence we 

 were looking at them. "With a kind of foolish expression 

 these birds looked at us, but did not take the trouble to 

 move. The razor-bills, though equally tame, seemed more 

 ready to take flight, if we had been inclined to assail them. 

 When I fired off my gun, not at, but over, the birds, the 

 guillemots only ducked their heads, and then looked up at 

 us ; whereas most of the razor-bills took a short flight out to 

 sea, but quickly returned again to their perch on the rocks. 



Being provided with plenty of rope, two stout boatmen, 

 and also a slender-looking lad, who had volunteered to 

 accompany us, having the repute of a good cragsman, we 

 lowered the latter over the top in order to procure a few 

 eggs. I was amazed at the confidence and ease with which 

 the lad made his way from shelf to shelf, and crevice to 

 crevice of the precipices. From habit and custom he seemed 

 to be as much at his ease as if he had been on fair terra 

 firnw. As for the birds, they would scarcely move, but just 

 stepped out of reach, croaking at him with their peculiar 

 note. 



Each bird has a single egg of a size so large as to appear 

 quite disproportioned. The eggs are of all colours, and 

 marked in a thousand fantastic manners, sometimes with 

 large blotches of deep brown or black, sometimes speckled 

 slightly all over, and others having exactly the appearance 

 of being covered with Arabic characters. The prevailing 

 groundwork of the eggs is greenish blue, but they vary in 

 different shades from that colour to nearly white. The egg 

 is placed on the bare rock, with no attempt at a nest : and it 

 was very amusing to see the careful but awkward-looking 

 manner in which the old bird on her return from the sea got 

 astride, as it were, of her egg, spreading her wings over it, 

 and croaking gently all the time. Occasionally an egg would 

 get knocked off by some bird in taking flight from the rock, 

 to the great indignation of its owner. 



Leaving Dunbar to collect his eggs, I strolled off alone 

 along the summit of the cliffs, sitting down here and there to 

 watch the different proceedings of the birds ; and it was a 

 most curious sight. On lying down to look over the most 

 perpendicular parts, the constant and countless clouds of 

 birds that were flying to and fro suggested the idea of a 

 heavy snow-storm more than anything else, so crowded was 



