THE GUILLEMOT 277 



rows on almost every precipice, tier above tier, and row 

 beyond row, all busy hatching their eggs, whilst the sea 

 below is swarming with Guillemots and other rock-haunting 

 species. 



The Guillemot lays only a single egg, and if this is taken 

 she will lay another and another, but in no case does she 

 rear more than one young bird in a season. It would 

 require a chapter to fully describe the endless tints with 

 which the Guillemot's eggs are painted. The ground colours 

 are dark green, yellowish-green, reddish-brown, cream, white, 

 and pale blue, with every intermediate shade ; the markings, 

 which are distributed in bold irregular blotches, spots, 

 streaks, and zones, are composed of browns and grays and 

 pinks of every possible shade. Some eggs axe much more 

 handsome than others ; and occasionally a few are met with 

 without markings of any kind. A beautiful variety is white, 

 intricately streaked and netted with pink ; others are green, 

 streaked in the same manner with yellow or light brown. 

 No other egg with which I am acquainted varies in such an 

 extraordinary manner ; and a carefully selected and judici- 

 ously arranged series of these beautiful objects makes one of 

 the prettiest sights an oological cabinet can display. Vast 

 numbers of these eggs are gathered for food in many places, 

 especially at Flamborough, the Feme Islands, the Orkneys, 

 and St. Kilda. Both birds assist in incubating the egg ; and 

 as soon as the young Guillemot is hatched it is conveyed to 

 the water by its parent, and lives on the sea until it is able 

 to fly. 



As soon as the breeding season is over the Guillemots 

 desert their lofty homes and betake themselves to the open 

 sea. They now very rarely visit the land, except when 

 driven in by unusually severe weather, when they often 

 congregate in thousands in the sheltered bays and other parts 

 of the coast. Now the Guillemot becomes a regular nomad, 



