366 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



moved, being unable to help themselves. We 

 shall notice, as we proceed, several instances evi- 

 dencing the parental care manifested in the bring- 

 ing up of the young. 



If any one will pay a visit to the haunts of the 

 rock-breeding birds, and will attentively consider 

 the position in which the young of the common 

 guillemot are placed after their exclusion from the 

 shell, he will immediately perceive its extreme 

 peril. The egg has lain for a month upon a 

 shelf of rock only a few inches broad; above is 

 a perpendicular wall of cliff; below a tremendous 

 precipice, the foot of which is wet with the ocean 

 waters. There, after the expiration of the month's 

 incubation, the young guillemot bursts the shell, 

 and enters upon life. But how dangerous its 

 position! What prospect of its making a safe 

 descent into the waters, or retaining a secure 

 footing on the cliff? Yet if we look down on 

 the surface of the waves below, we shall see 

 the young together with their parents sporting 

 about on the water. How, we may inquire, did 

 they succeed in getting there in safety? For 

 a certain period it appears that the young birds 

 remain on the shelf of rock on which they first saw 





