THE RAZORBILL. 439 



with a supply of fishes for their young. I have seen several at a 

 time sallying from the ledges and buffeting these birds until they 

 dropped the fish, which were afterwards picked up by the aggressor, 

 as they momentarily floated on the surface. On one occasion, a 

 friend, in cruising past the Craig, saw a Eazorbill and puffin 

 strike each other dead, by coming into sudden and forcible col- 

 lision, the one bird while hurrying towards the rock and the other 

 in launching from it; a calamity which, as his skipper declared, 

 might have been averted, had they taken the precaution to "port 

 their helms" 



The egg of this bird is subject to wonderful variety, both in size 

 and colour, some being very light, and besprinkled with small 

 spots, while others are darkly clouded with mahogany-coloured 

 blotches, which give the egg a very peculiar appearance. A series 

 of fifty, now before me, shows these varieties in a very marked 

 degree; of twenty from Barra, taken in 1869, only three have 

 the usual ground colour, the others being curiously marked 

 with irregular blotches, so thickly distributed over the surface as 

 to present a uniform hue; other thirty from Ailsa Craig, taken in 

 1870, are uniformly small, one or two being little over half the 

 size of those from Barra, and every specimen is light in colour 

 and minutely spotted. I am inclined to think that these smaller 

 and lighter coloured eggs are of a second laying, though it would 

 entail patient observation on the spot to satisfy one's self of the 

 correctness of this surmise. The same rule as to size would not 

 apply to the eggs of the common guillemot, many of the smaller 

 specimens being of a very deep green, while some of the largest 

 eggs are cream-coloured and spotted with light brown. 



At the close of the breeding season, which is usually the last 

 week in July, the Razorbill assembles in large flocks off shore, in 

 the vicinity of the rock stations, where it appears to feed chiefly 

 upon sand-eels. When these become scarce, the birds disperse 

 along the coasts, and, sometimes in favourable seasons, are known 

 to congregate in large companies, and remain for some time over 

 the sandbanks at a considerable distance from land. I have, on 

 various occasions, seen such companies, when every bird was 

 distinctly visible on the smooth sea, and on rowing towards the 

 place, could always judge of the duration of the assembly by the 

 quantity of feathers floating about. At this season, also, the 

 Razorbill may be distinguished on calm days flying in small 



