132 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 



hordes of these birds at St. Kilda, at the Fame 

 Islands, and elsewhere. Even whilst I write, I 

 can once more see the struggling, quarrelling, 

 rowdy hosts of Guillemots that crowd the famous 

 " Pinnacles " ; still see them pouring off in endless 

 streams, headlong into the water, as I prepared 

 to scale their haunt. Once more memory recalls 

 and paints in vivid scene the beetling St. Kildan 

 cliffs, with their rows and rows of white-breasted 

 Guillemots, sitting tier upon tier, upwards and up- 

 wards towards the dark blue sky ; my tiny boat 

 tossing like a cork on the wild Atlantic swell, 

 and the countless swarms of Guillemots swimming 

 in the sea around me, hastening to the cliffs or 

 returning from them, beaten off by more fortunate 

 possessors of a place. 



The Guillemot lays a single egg, without making 

 a nest of any kind for its reception. If this egg 

 be taken, however, the bird will lay a second or a 

 third, and advantage is taken of this fact by those 

 persons that gather them for a livelihood. The 

 egg of no other known bird varies to such an 

 extraordinary extent as that of the Guillemot, 

 whilst few, if any, are more beautiful. Greens, 

 browns, yellows, pale blues, and white, form the 

 principal ground colour ; the markings, which take 

 the form of spots, blotches, streaks, and zones, 

 are composed of browns, grays, and pinks, of 

 every possible tint. One variety is white, intricately 

 laced, netted, and streaked with pink ; another is 



