72 



This, if not the commonest, is one of the most 

 numerous of our sea birds, breeding in large colonies 

 at hundreds of stations round the British Islands. 



Though not usually considered fit for table 

 they are extensively used an an article of food on 

 some of the barren islands in the North. 



The parent birds are stated (though I have 

 never had the good fortune to be myself a witness 

 of the proceedings) to carry down their young on 

 their backs from the ledges on which they are 

 hatched. Numbers that are knocked over by 

 accident fall into the water, but appear to receive 

 no injury unless striking against the rocks in their 

 descent. 



I reared one myself that dropped over two 

 hundred feet from one of the highest ledges on the 

 west side of the Bass Eock and only missed the 

 gunwale of my boat by about half a yard. 



Though the eggs of the Guillemot differ in a 

 most remarkable degree, the ground colour being 

 occasionally blue, green, yellow, or white, I believe 

 that one bird always lays the same coloured eggs. 



I once removed three eggs from a small ledge 

 on the Bass Rock, and visiting the same spot about 

 ten days later I found three more in precisely the 

 same situation and so exactly like the former ones 

 as to be hardly distinguished from them. Again 

 returning in a fortnight three more similar in colour 

 and corresponding almost mark for mark with 

 the others, were obtained. No other Guillemots 

 were breeding within twenty or thirty yards of that 

 part of the rock, and though I frequently examined 

 the spot from the sea through the glasses I never 

 noticed more than three pairs frequenting that 

 ledge. 



The specimens in the case were all obtained at 

 the Bass Eock in the Firth of Forth in June, 1867. 

 See " Rough Notes," Vol. III. Plates 23 and 24. 



