EGGS OF WILD GEESE, ETC. 197 



taken from this spot every year, and even find 

 their way into the Edinburgh market, where they 

 are said to be highly prized by certain epicures 

 of modern Athens while at the same time the 

 tenant can afford to pay a high rent for his privi- 

 lege it is obvious that the casualties to which 

 this species is liable at other seasons of the year 

 must be comparatively trifling, or that the natural 

 laws which govern its general increase and dimi- 

 nution must be very different from those which 

 influence the various families of the gallinaceous 

 order. 



The eggs of the guillemot (uria troile) and 

 razorbill (alca torda) constitute an important 

 article of traffic on various parts of the British 

 coast, where the lofty precipices, on the narrow 

 ledges of which these birds deposit their eggs, are 

 constantly explored during the month of May and 

 the early part of June by adventurous cragsmen 

 who have been inured from their boyhood to 

 this dangerous art. Mr. Water ton, in the first 

 series of his ' Essays on Natural History/ has 

 given a graphic description of such a scene, in 

 which he was himself a principal actor, on the 

 cliffs which extend from Flamborough Head as 

 far as the bay of Filey on the Yorkshire coast. 



Many members of the great family of anatidce 

 (ducks, geese and swans) which used to frequent 



