THE RAZORBILL AND GUILLEMOT 29 



were fledged. The instinct to do so may still survive in the razor- 

 bills and guillemots. 



Their first experience of the water appears to be anything but 

 agreeable to the young. Professor Patten writes of the young razor- 

 bill: "It is amusing to watch the bewildered expression of the 

 youngsters when they receive their first ducking in the briny deep. 

 I have heard them crying in piteous accents for their fond parents, 

 who, out of their sight in the depths beneath, were diligently pursuing 

 fish to feed them." 1 The paucity of the evidence, and its contradictory 

 nature, makes it impossible at present to say with any certainty 

 whether the young dive and feed themselves instinctively, or whether 

 they have to learn. Naumann states explicitly that young razorbills 

 begin to dive for food in the water, though a few minutes before 

 accustomed to receive their food on the rock. He adds that the 

 parents do not feed them. 2 This, however, is not the view of others. 



The object of the parents appears to be to get their offspring away 

 to sea ; and as to the manner in which the razorbill does this we have 

 the following interesting first-hand evidence : " The old bird wants to 

 get the young one off to sea. The young one, apparently, does not 

 understand this, and merely swims about. The old bird seems excited, 

 swims round it and right off before it a few yards, then returns and 

 dives a few times round about it. At last it commences to peck and 

 tug and worry the young bird ; but it is so stupid that it cannot 

 understand. Hours are spent in this way, and little progress is made ; 

 at last the old bird dives down and comes up under the young one, 

 which is nicely poised on its back. In this way the mother swims off 

 to sea with its offspring, rising and falling with the heaving of the 

 billows until they are lost to view in the distance. This is no mere 

 hearsay it is my own actual observation ; but my wife was the first 

 on the island to observe it." 3 



In passing, it may be noted that, if the razorbill carries its 



1 Aquatic Birds, pp. 470-1. 



* Vogel Mitteleuropas, xii. 167. 



3 Irish Naturalist, 1899, 135 (E. M'Carron) 



