AMONG THE SEA-BIRDS. 127 



one vast colony of Guillemots. These birds cluster so 

 thickly on the summits that scarcely a bit of rock can 

 be seen all is one moving mass of birds. Guillemots 

 are constantly arriving from the sea, others plunge head- 

 long down into the water below, their places being 

 quickly taken by the new arrivals. At the approach of 

 man the birds hurriedly depart in streams they pour 

 off the edges, and the whirr of their wings sounds 

 distinctly above the noise of the waves beating against 

 the rocks and the incessant clamour of the Kittiwakes. 

 As the birds leave the rocks we notice hundreds upon 

 hundreds of their beautiful pear-shaped eggs of almost 

 every variety of colour and combination of markings. 

 No two are alike the varieties seem endless. Numbers 

 of eggs are knocked off into the sea as the birds hurriedly 

 leave them. The mystery is how each bird can ever find 

 its own egg again ; and there seems no room to doubt 

 that the eggs get sadly mixed in the hurry and excite- 

 ment of the parent birds' departure. 



We bring our peep at the Fame Islands to a close by 

 a short inspection of the rock where the Cormorants 

 breed. This low rock is completely isolated from the 

 rest of the islands. It seems as if the other sea birds 

 had banished the unsavoury Cormorants to this lonely 

 isle. They are dirty birds, and the stench arising from 

 decaying fish and droppings is highly offensive, especially 

 on a hot June day, or when we chance to pass to leeward 



