54 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



LOVE ON THE SHORE 



The business of living creatures is two-fold 

 caring for self and caring for others. Perhaps 

 we have said enough about caring for self on 

 the shore ; what about caring for others ? The 

 mother-seals nurse their young ones among the 

 rocks, and many birds, such as guillemots and 

 razor-bills, puffins and kittiwakes, make their 

 nests on the cliffs. When we see the narrow 

 ledges on which the guillemots and the razor- 

 bills lay their eggs just one for each bird 

 we wonder that there is any successful hatch- 

 ing at all. The wind searches every shelf, and 

 there is such a crowded coming and going of 

 mothers that the egg has every chance of 

 being jostled. But Darwin asked naturalists 

 to notice the pear-like shape of the egg and 

 the particular way in which it moves when it is 

 twirled in an eddy or jostled by the bird's feet. 

 Because of its shape it tends not to roll, but 

 simply to rotate on its short axis without 

 moving from its place. If we give it a vigor- 

 ous twirl on a smooth table, it simply rotates 

 without rolling. For this reason, then, it does 

 not fall off the narrow ledge into the sea. 

 This is a simple example of what is meant by 



