54 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



LOVE ON THE SHORE 



The business of living creatures is two-fold 

 caring for self and caring for others. Per- 

 haps we have said enough about caring for self 

 on the shore; what about caring for others? 

 The mother-seals nurse their young ones 

 among the rocks, and many birds, such as guil- 

 lemots and razor-bills, puffins and kittiwakes, 

 make their nests on the cliffs. When we see the 

 narrow ledges on which the guillemots and the 

 razor-bills lay their eggs just one for each 

 bird we wonder that there is any successful 

 hatching at all. The wind searches every 

 shelf, and there is such a crowded coming and 

 going of mothers that the egg has every chance 

 of being jostled. But Darwin asked natu- 

 ralists to notice the pear-like shape of the egg 

 and the particular way in which it moves 

 when it is twirled in an eddy or jostled by the 

 bird's feet. Because of its shape it tends not to 

 roll, but simply to rotate on its short axis with- 

 out moving from its place. If we give it a 

 vigorous twirl on a smooth table, it simply 

 rotates without rolling. For this reason, then, 

 it does not fall off the narrow ledge into the 

 sea. This is a simple example of what is 



