SECURITY OF THE EGG. 41 



stone, perhaps not wider than its own length, where 

 one would suppose the first puff of wind would roll 

 them over the edge, and involve them by scores in the 

 irremediable fate of Umpti-dumpty in the nursery- 

 rhyme. Still we did not discern on the groins and 

 points of the rock below any spatterings which would 

 indicate the frequency of such an accident ; nor can 

 we suppose, from what we know of the economy of the 

 works of God, and of the almost infallibility of in- 

 stinct, that it is at all common. Probably the egg is 

 rarely or never left unprotected, except in unwonted 

 circumstances, one parent relieving the other in incu- 

 bation ; and we could see how cleverly the old bird 

 kept its frail charge between its legs, even as it moved 

 to and fro. An intelligent observer of animals, who 

 is very familiar with these birds, told me that he had 

 seen a gull attack a sitting mer with the design of 

 robbing her of her egg. They engaged stoutly, the 

 mer pushing her egg behind her, while she faced her 

 enemy. At length she caught him by the leg, and 

 pinched so hard, and held on so firmly, still all the 

 while covering her egg in the angle of the ledge, that 

 at length she fairly drove the robber off. 



The chick does not sit between the feet of the 

 parent, but cowers beneath one of its wings, which is 

 drooped to shelter it, a touching sight, as every 

 manifestation of parental care and affection in the 

 inferior animals is. If the account which the fisher- 

 men at Flamborough Head gave Mr Waterton is cor- 

 rect, and there is every reason to credit it, the young 



