Birds by Land and Sea 



From the turfy slope where the puffins breed, 

 we got down on to the rocky ledges occupied by 

 the guillemots and razorbills. The breeding arrange- 

 ments of both of these birds seemed to be in a 

 more forward state than in the case of the puffins. 

 Eggs were out, as could be seen by the attitude of 

 some of the birds. The birds themselves were 

 considerably less numerous than the puffins, and 

 the razorbills, again, were in the minority as com- 

 pared with the guillemots. The most noticeable 

 point by which the guillemots may be distinguished 

 from the razorbills is the bill. In the latter bird, 

 this is a massive structure shaped at the end like the 

 head of a razor ; the bill of the guillemot is sharply 

 pointed. In their disposition to form up in lines, 

 their dark backs to the rocks and their white under- 

 parts to the sea, the guillemots and razorbills 

 resemble the puffins. Like them, also, they sit the 

 water in straggling companies, which, by the action 

 of the currents, are often drawn out into long lines, 

 continually changing form as the birds are drifted 

 now one way, now another, by the moving waters. 

 Both dive, fish, and fly like the puffins, but are 

 sharply distinguished in their breeding habits. Each 

 of these three birds lays only one egg ; but, whilst 

 the puffin places its egg in an earth-burrow, made 

 by itself or the work of an expropriated rabbit, the 

 guillemot lays its egg on narrow, flat, open ledges 

 on the cliffs, and the razorbills in the same general 

 situation, but always in a hollow or cranny in the 



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