106 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



hundred feet below, my brother was enabled to 

 stalk a number of Guillemots and Razorbills, and 

 make the picture opposite. 



At this place I noticed several Guillemots' eggs 

 just showing from pools of rain-water, formed by 

 the peculiar upward slope of the outer edge of the 

 rock beds. In two or three cases a warm egg was 

 lying on a dry flat ledge an inch or two above 

 the immersed one, and so similar were the two in 

 ground colour and markings that I was at once 

 reminded of the assertion of cragsmen in various 

 parts of the country that although this species lays 

 eggs varying very widely in coloration, an indi- 

 vidual Guillemot invariably produces a similar type 

 of egg from year to year. I do not think that 

 there could be any doubt but that the eggs in the 

 water had originally been laid on the ledge where 

 the warm eggs were resting, and that they had 

 accidentally rolled away and been lost to their 

 owners for hatching purposes. The St. Kildans 

 whom I consulted upon the matter were of the 

 same opinion, and corroborated the statements of 

 other cragsmen in regard to an individual bird 

 always laying a similar type of egg. 



After the usual difficulties of re- embarkation had 

 been successfully surmounted we steered for Soa, 

 which we found to be the most awkward island to 

 effect a landing upon which we had yet encountered. 

 Martin in writing of it says: "It is dangerous to 

 ascend; the landing is also very hazardous both in 

 regard of the raging sea on the rock that must be 

 climbed." He contented himself by watching both 

 done, a fact which, I am inclined to think, only 

 lessened his appreciation of the difficulties. 



We got ashore, after a great deal of scrambling 

 and excitement, at a place where the rocks sloped 



