184 BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 



the Speeton Cliffs at Flamborough, as well as on the 

 Fame Isles. During the winter months it may be 

 found in every part of the North Sea and occa- 

 sionally within the Humber. Although not, as a 

 rule, frequenting the neighbourhood of their breeding- 

 haunts at this season, they are sometimes seen in 

 considerable numbers off the Flamborough Cliff in 

 November, becoming quite common in January. 

 They commence nesting in May incubation lasting 

 a month, the female sitting on a single egg placed 

 on the bare rock, and incubating in an upright 

 position. If the first egg is taken by the cliff- 

 climbers, the old bird will lay another, and, I am told, 

 if the plundering is repeated, will go on laying in 

 succession as many as ten or twelve eggs. 



When the young are partly fledged, and even when 

 they are quite little things, the old birds carry them 

 down to the sea on their backs. This is done late in 

 the evening, after sunset. The Flamborough boat- 

 men say that when they are fishing under the 

 Speeton Cliffs, on summer evenings, they have often 

 observed this process of carrying the young down, 

 the little fellow clinging to its parent's back, and not 

 unfrequently tumbling from the somewhat precarious 

 perch into the sea sooner than was intended. 



The Guillemots leave their breeding-stations about 

 the middle of August ; several, however, leave much 

 earlier than this date. I have seen the old birds 

 with their half-fledged young, yet unable to fly, off 



