COMMON GUILLEMOT. 71? 



are emptied into large market baskets. The other men 

 meanwhile coil up the ropes and prepare for a move to the 

 next spot. The day's work commences at seven o'clock, 

 and, on an average, about thirty descents are made ; at the 

 end of the day the eggs are all pooled and shared out, each 

 man taking six or eight, the ' 'dimmer " as his perquisite 

 being entitled to first pick each time. The Flamborough 

 gang usually lower a young man instead of a " grown-up." 

 The work is so arranged that the whole ground shall be 

 cleared bi-weekly, each portion being climbed every third day, 

 thus ensuring a constant supply of fresh eggs ; in wet weather 

 it so happens, however, that it is impossible to work, in this 

 case the eggs become partly incubated and are spoilt for 

 edible purposes ; they are therefore gathered and blown for 

 specimens, and the birds are thereby induced to lay again. 

 When any portion of the cliffs is " dumb out," and becomes 

 " poor," it is fallowed for two years or until it recovers, 

 and is then again visited. In fine weather the Guillemots 

 often drop their eggs in the sea, and it is no uncommon 

 occurrence for specimens to be found in crab-pots and trawling 

 nets. Egg-climbing in the " sixties " and " seventies " 

 commenced on I2th May, but is now a week or ten days later ; 

 it ends the first week in July, or in a backward season it may 

 be extended for a few days ; I have known it prolonged until 

 the I3th, but in the year 1904 a movement was started to 

 induce the men to cease operations on 1st July. The average 

 daily take of each gang is from 300 to 400, the grand total 

 approximating 130,000. As many as 1,400 eggs have been 

 collected by one party in a single day ; old Londesborough 

 on one occasion took 1,700 after stormy weather had prevented 

 him getting down the cliffs for several days, and a few years 

 ago George Wilkinson and Henry Marr gathered 600 from 

 two spots between six and eight o'clock. The first laying is, 

 as a rule, the most productive, after which there is a slack 

 time ; then ensues the midsummer " shut " or " flush," and 

 after another slack interval, there is a third " flush " ; the 

 numbers then gradually decrease again towards the end of 

 June. It may be here observed that there are many dangerous 



