THE SWIMMERS 



979 



and Puffin — close-feathered, lumpy birds, 

 feeding on fish, and carrying much fat. 

 are each of them black abo\-e with white 

 undcr-parts. The wings are short and 

 pointed, reaching almost to the tip of 

 the inconspicuous tail ; the feet are webbed 

 and set far back. All are gregarious at 

 all seasons, and spend most of the time 

 at sea. The first two are residents, but 

 the Puffin winters further south. Guille- 

 mot aiul Razorbill are about eighteen and 



yellow skin at the gape allows the man- 

 dibles to be opened widely. The orbits 

 and feet and legs are orange-red. A 

 further peculiarity about this grotesque 

 bird is that the basal covering of the 

 beak is shed in the autumn. In common 

 with the Guillemot and Razorbill it lays 

 but one egg, which is of a dirty-white 

 ground colour, very faintly marked with 

 lilac ; this is either de])osited in a rabbit 

 burrow or in a hole tunnelled out by the 



SHAGS. 



Photografih by Miss E. Shiffiur, Lcves. 



seventeen inches long respectively. The 

 chief distinguishing mark between the two 

 is the beak, which is black in both species, 

 but that of the Guillemot is comparatively 

 straight, pointed, and whole-coloured, 

 whilst that of the Razorbill is arched, 

 much compressed, and hooked at the tip, 

 and has one, two. or three white trans- 

 verse bars, according t(j age, on the u})per 

 mandible. There is also a white line 

 extending from the base of the beak to 

 the eye. The smaller Puffin, or Sea 

 Parrot, has a white or smoky-white face 

 and a very peculiarly coloured and dis- 

 tinctively shaped beak, shorter than the 

 head, and very much arched, wider, or 

 rather higher, than it is long, slaty grey 

 in colour with orange-coloured ridges. 

 and almost red ti]). A ])atcli of loose 



bird itself. The Razorbill lays its very 

 handsome solitary egg — which is pyriform 

 and whitish or pale brown in ground colour, 

 blotched and spotted with various shades 

 of deep rich brown, chiefly at the larger 

 end — in close proximity to those belonging 

 to other members of the colony, on the 

 bare rock ledge, its sha]>e being its only 

 safeguard from being rolled into the sea 

 or dashed on the rocks below, when the 

 ])arent bird is friglitened from it. But 

 tliis ]:»r()visi()n of Nature reaches its greatest 

 development in the blue-shelled, black- 

 scrawled Qgg of the Guillemot, which is 

 even more decidedly j^ear-shaped. 



The chief difference between the Cor- 

 morant and Shag is in their size, the 

 former ])eing three feet in length, and 

 the latter about eiglit inches less. Both 



