394 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



hydrogen. The top of these " Pinnacles/' at the time of our visit, was one 

 dense mass of Guillemots, and as we approached all became excitement. 

 Streams of Guillemots poured off every corner in long strings like Wild 

 Ducks, but for some time the dense mass seemed to get no less. In every 

 direction shoals of Guillemots were hurrying and skurrying away over the 

 sea almost as far as the eye could reach. Some desperate individuals took 

 a header from the top of the rocks, and flinging oat their legs so as to make 

 a threefold rudder with the tail, plunged at once into the sea and dived out 

 of danger. By the time we had landed an anchor the rocks were nearly 

 cleared, and for a mile or more away the sea seemed covered with birds. 



The flight of the Guillemot is heavy and laborious, 

 though rapid, reminding one of that of a King- 

 fisher or hawk-moth. We were able to climb 

 some distance up the "Pinnacles/' and a good 

 ladder we brought with us from the next island 

 landed us at the top. On the lime-washed top of 

 each pinnacle were some thirty or forty eggs, 

 looking exactly as if a smart gust of wind would 

 sweep off the lot. Not the remotest vestige of 

 a nest of any kind was there. The rock having 

 recently been cleared of eggs, those we found 

 were nearly all fresh laid, very clean, and looked 

 most beautiful on the white rock, especially the 

 dark green eggs. The Guillemot only lays one 

 egg; indeed it could not sit upon two, the egg 

 being enormously large for the size of the bird, 

 which does not sit upon it on its breast, like a 

 Duck, but rests upright on its tail. As we were 



