1 2 o Poachers a n d Poach ing. 



men who are let down the rocks in ropes. They 

 traverse the narrowest ledges, placing the eggs 

 which they gather daily in baskets fastened round 

 their shoulders. The guillemot makes no nest, 

 lays but one egg, and incubation lasts about a 

 month. The birds sit upright, and when sud- 

 denly alarmed, as by the firing of a gun, the 

 eggs fall in showers into the sea. Most of those 

 collected at Flamborough are sent to Leeds, 

 where the albumen is used in the preparation of 

 patent leather ; whilst the eggs taken on Lundy 

 are used at Bristol in the manufacture of sugar. 

 At the British breeding-stations of the gannet, or 

 Solan goose, thousands of birds breed annually, 

 though in numbers less than formerly. In this 

 case the young birds, not the eggs, are taken ; 

 and on North Barra from two thousand to three 

 thousand birds are captured in a season. The 

 collector kills the gannets as they are taken from 

 the nests, and they are then thrown into the sea 

 beneath, where a boat is in waiting to pick them 

 up. In the Faroes the people keep January 25 

 as a festival in consequence of the return of the 

 birds. 



The difference in size and colour which the 

 eggs of different birds exhibit is even more 

 apparent than the great diversity of shape. The 

 giant eggs of wild swans and geese, or the extinct 

 great auk, are tremendous when compared with 

 those of the warblers and titmice ; while the egg 



