PLATE I 

 RAZORBILL. A lea torda 



June I2///, 1896. The Razorbill's egg depicted in the Plate was the only one 

 which I could get at to photograph on my visit to the Treshnish Islands, Inner 

 Hebrides. On the Dutchman's Cap one of the group the eggs were for 

 the most part laid in tiny crevices or hollows, made by some stone or boulder 

 dropping out of the matrix of the amygdaloid formation of which the islands 

 are composed ; but in some places I saw many of them in crevices, in splits 

 in the cliff, in deserted Puffin burrows, and a few on small overhung ledges. 



I was very much surprised to see a male bird come in three times to a 

 crevice and feed his sitting mate with small herring fry, as I had previously 

 been under the impression that they left the nest to feed. That they do so 

 also I had ample proof, as I saw a pair change, the male going on to the egg 

 while the female flew off to the sea and splashed about in the water at no 

 great distance. There were very few young birds hatched indeed, I only saw 

 two, though I visited all the cliffs on several of the islands. 



On one ledge, under a huge mass of rock, I saw five Guillemots sitting on 

 their eggs among a little colony of twenty-three Razorbills. I got within five 

 yards of them, but was unable to procure a photograph, as I had no rope 

 with me. 



VOL. II. 2 A 89 



