CH. XXXVI. NESTING-PLACES OF WATER-FOWL. 269 



myriads of eggs which surround her. So, also, in 

 the breeding-places of the black-headed and other 

 gulls, every bird watches over and cares for her 

 own nest — though the numbers are so great, and 

 the tumult so excessive, that it is difficult to con- 

 ceive how each gull can distinguish her own spotted 

 eggs, placed in the midst of so many others exactly 

 similar in size, shape, and colour ; and when at 

 length the young are hatched and are swimming 

 about on the loch, or crowded together on some 

 grassy point, the old birds, as they come home from 

 a distance with food, fly rapidly amidst thousands 

 of young ones, exactly similar to their own, without 

 even looking at them, until they find their own 

 offspring, who, recognising their parents amongst all 

 the other birds, receive the morsel, without any of 

 the other hungry little creatures around attempt- 

 ing to dispute the prize, each waiting patiently for 

 its own parent, in perfect confidence that its turn 

 will come in clue season. 



The breeding-rocks of the solan geese, the Bass 

 Eock in the Firth of Forth, and Ailsa Craig on the 

 west, will well repay the trouble of visiting them. 

 Eows of the nests thickly cover the ground ; and 

 wild and wary as these birds are at other times, 

 during the breeding-season they will not move from 

 their nests until actually lifted off by the hand. 



