COMMON GUILLEMOT. 719 



which he appeared to be highly delighted. The strangers 

 visited the climbers each day for a week, helping them in 

 their work, and it was not until they had departed that 

 it was discovered the young visitor who had gone " ower 

 cliff " was the Prince Imperial of France. 



If the first egg is taken a second is produced, and, frequently 

 but not invariably, a third, the intervals between the first and 

 second layings being, on an average, fourteen days if the 

 egg is fresh, but, in the event of it being slightly incubated, 

 the time is extended to eighteen or twenty days, and, if much 

 incubated, to twenty-four days. In the case of a female 

 becoming " clocky " over both the first and second egg it 

 is probable that she does not lay a third that season. I have 

 been informed by an old Flamborough climber that he once 

 found in a sitting bird an egg ready for extrusion and three 

 others in a well developed state. 



Notwithstanding the enormous quantities of eggs taken 

 annually the climbers declare that there is no diminution 

 in the number of birds, and my observations certainly lead 

 me to believe this to be the case. In 1834, when Charles 

 Waterton visited Flamborough, the common eggs were sold 

 at sixpence per score ; the price is now twelve to sixteen for 

 a shilling, and these are eaten by the villagers, or are sent to 

 one of the large Yorkshire towns for use in the manufacture 

 of patent leather, while the well marked specimens are set 

 aside for collectors. Flamborough, or strictly speaking, 

 Bempton, eggs are celebrated amongst oologists for their 

 remarkable beauty and variety, though some twenty-five 

 years ago, when collectors were few, common eggs were 

 sold at three a penny, and twopence was considered a good 

 price for a special example. The competition for good 

 specimens is now very keen, prices having accordingly advanced 

 until as much as 5/-, 7/6, and even half a sovereign is now 

 paid for " real fancy eggs," as the men call them.* 



There is an endless variety of colouring and marking in 



* For another account of the " dimmers " and their methods, 

 see " The Birds of Bempton Cliffs," by E. W. Wade, Trans. Hull Scu 

 and Field Nat. Club, Vol. III. pt. i, for 1903. 



