THE GUILLEMOT. 159 
if she be allowed to hatch her first egg, she lays no 
more for the season; if that egg be lost or taken 
away, another is laid to supply its place. 
The men also assure you that, when the young 
guillemot gets to a certain size, it manages to climb 
upon the back of the old bird, which conveys it 
down to the ocean. Having carried a good tele- 
scope with me, through it I saw numbers of young 
guillemots, diving and sporting on the sea, quite 
unable to fly ; and I observed others on the ledges 
of the rocks, as I went down among them, in such 
situations that, had they attempted to fall into the 
waves beneath, they would have been killed by 
striking against the projecting points of the inter- 
vening sharp and rugged rocks: wherefore I con- 
cluded that the information of the rock-climbers 
was to be depended upon; and I more easily gave 
credit to it, because I myself have seen an old swan 
sailing on the water with her young ones upon her 
back, about a week after they were hatched. 
He who rejoices when he sees all nature smiling 
around him, and who takes an interest in contem- 
plating the birds of heaven as they wing their way 
before him, will feel sad at heart on learning the 
unmerited persecution to which these harmless 
seafowl are exposed. Parties of sportsmen, from 
all quarters of the kingdom, visit Flamborough and 
its vicinity during the summer months, and spread 
sad devastation all around them. No profit attends 
the carnage; the poor unfortunate birds serve merely 
as marks to aim at, and they are generally left 
where they fall. Did these heartless gunmen reflect, 
