452 ALCAD.E. 



green, more or less blotched and streaked with dark red- 

 dish-brown, or black ; sometimes these markings are dis- 

 tributed over a white ground colour, and I have seen the 

 eggs of this species of a plain green or white colour, with- 

 out any secondary markings ; the form of the egg is that 

 of an elongated handsome pear, measuring three inches and 

 a quarter in length, by one inch and eleven lines in breadth 

 at the larger end. The eggs of the Guillemot are readily 

 distinguished from those of the Razorbill, with which they 

 are most likely to be mixed, by the length to which the 

 smaller end of the former is drawn out. Large quantities 

 of these and various other rock-birds 1 eggs are collected at 

 different parts of the coast by fishermen and their sons, 

 who let themselves down, or are let down by others, over 

 the edge of the cliff with one or two ropes fixed to a strong 

 iron crow-bar driven into the ground above. These men, 

 from practice, traverse narrow ledges of the rock, picking 

 up the eggs along a path of only a few inches in breadth 

 with steadiness and certainty. The Guillemot makes no 

 nest, and the female sits in an upright position upon her 

 single egg during incubation, which lasts for a month. 

 The young birds, at first covered with down, or bristly hair 

 rather, from the manner in which it resists saturation with 

 water, are fed for a time on the rocks by the parent birds 

 with portions of fish. Mr. Waterton, in his account of his 

 visit to the rock-bird-breeding localities about Flamborough 

 Head, says, " the men there assured me that when the 

 young Guillemot gets to a certain size, it manages to climb 

 upon the back of the old bird, which conveys it down to 

 the ocean. Having carried a good telescope with me, 

 through it I saw numbers of young Guillemots diving and 

 sporting on the sea, quite unable to fly ; and I observed 

 others on the ledges of the rocks as I went down among 



