102 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



bird, is a most interesting species. It is remarkable for its habits, 

 the localities in which it resides, its mode of progression in the 

 air, on land, and in and under the water, and, above all, for the 

 extraordinary variation in the colour and markings of its large 

 single egg. Our specimens were drawn at Lundy Island, but 

 the Guillemot is truly a circum-polar bird, to be fourtd alike in the 

 northern districts of Europe, Asia, and America. The greater 

 part of the year is spent in the open sea. In the spring it 

 frequents the rocky islands and cliffs around the coast, establish- 

 ing its nurseries at Flamborough Head, Bempton, the Farns, 

 the coast of Wales, the Bass Rock, and other innumerable 

 localities, and the Scottish rocks and islets. There upon ledges 

 of the rocks the hen lays her single egg, which is sometimes 

 nearly white, blotched with black and brown, at other times of a 

 darker colour, with richer brown marks. This pattern varies 

 again to the most lovely deep blue or green, others being reddish 

 and purple-brown. Some eggs are quite dark at the larger end, 

 and beautifully mossed with brown on a creamy-coloured ground, 

 the patterns and colours alike varying in endless variety. The 

 egg is large in size, exceeding three inches in length, and usually 

 of a pointed form, although the shape, as well as the size 

 and colour, varies considerably, some eggs being found not 

 much larger than that of a pigeon. On this single egg the old 

 Guillemot sits nearly erect for about a month, when the young 

 bird makes its appearance and is fed with fish by the parents. 

 When partly fledged it is conveyed to the sea from the high 

 eminence on which it is reared. It is generally believed that it 

 is carried down on the back of the parent, and has been noticed 

 to tumble off before it reached the surface of the water. In 



