THE GUILLEMOT. 215 



putting off from the shore is a signal for him instantly to leave the cliff and get out to sea as fast as 

 his short legs will cany him ; for he knows by experience that these ' cobbles ' are generally full of 

 'sportsmen' (save the mark !), thirsting for his blood. The eggs of the Razor-bill are by no means so 

 easy to obtain as those of the Guillemot. Instead of breeding on ledges easy of access, they prefer 

 some hole or cranny in the cliffs, where the egg has generally to be poked out with a stick, or only 

 admired at a safe distance. From the nature of the situation it is also obvious that the eggs are 

 scattered up and down the cliff, and are not to be got in batches, like those of the Guillemot, whose 

 eggs may often be collected by the dozen at a time 0:1 a single ledge. The Razor-bill's eggs, too, do not 

 vary in colour to the extent that the Guillemot's eggs do, or even as much as those of the Gulls. 

 They may, with very few exceptions, be roughly described as white with black spots ; the white has 

 sometimes a faint tinge of bluish-green or brown, and the black is sometimes greenish, and more 

 frequently reddish. The Razor-bill, like the Guillemot, only lays one egg, and if that one is taken 

 away it lays a second. It also breeds regularly in the same cranny, and each individual seems to lay 

 the same variety of egg from year to year. I have two Razor-bill's eggs, taken at intervals from the 

 same hole, which are twice the size of the ordinary egg, and I have also one which is extraordinarily 

 small." We are also indebted to Mr. Seebohm for an account of the breeding habits of the Guillemot 

 (Uria troile) in the Fern Islands and off the Flamborough cliffs. He observes: "The first colony 

 which we visited at the Fern Islands was that of the Guillemot. Whilst our little craft was scudding 

 along before the wind, the mast bending to the sail, and sometimes too far removed from the perpen- 

 dicular to be altogether agreeable to our landsmen's nerves, especially when our leeward bulwark 

 dived just under water for a second or two, we could see some miles ahead a group of rocks, called 

 ' The Pinnacles,' standing out conspicuously like great whitewashed rocks in front of one of the Fern 

 Islands. To these rocks we now quietly rowed. They stood out some fifty feet from the cliffs, and 

 were perhaps thirty or forty feet high, nearly perpendicular, and the summit of each a tolerably level 

 platform, about twelve or fifteen feat square. The top and more than half-way down the sides was 

 completely whitewashed with the excrement of the birds, and on the leeward side the smell of guano 

 was strong, but not offensively so, as the lime almost overpowered the ammonia and entirely absorbed 

 the sulphuretted hydrogen. The top of these ' Pinnacles ' was one dense mass of Guillemots, and, as 

 we approached, all became excitement. Streams of Guillemots poured off every corner in long strings, 

 like Wild Ducks, but for some time the dense mass seemed to get no less. In every direction shoals 

 of Guillemots were hurrying and skurrying away over the sea, almost as far as the eye could reach. 

 Some desperate individuals took a header from the top of the rocks, and flinging out their legs so as 

 to make a threefold rudder with the tail, plunged at once into the ssa and dived out of danger. All 

 this time tha birds were protesting vociferously against our intrusion. By the time we had landed 

 an anchor the rocks were nearly cleared, and for a mile or more away the sea seemed covered with 

 them. The flight of the Guillemot is heavy and laborious, reminding one of that of a Kingfisher or a 

 Hawk-moth. We were able to climb some distance up the ' Pinnacles,' and a good long ladder we 

 brought with us from the next island landed us at the top. On the lime-washed top of each pinnacle 

 were some thirty or forty eggs, looking exactly as if a smart breeze would sweep off the lot. Not the 

 remotest vestige of a nest of any kind was there. The rock having been recently cleared of eggs, 

 those we found were all nearly fresh laid, very clean, and looking most beautiful on the white rock; 

 especially the dark green eggs. The Guillemot lays only one egg, and, indeed, it could not sit upon 

 two, the egg being enormously large for the size of the bird, who does not seem, to sit upon it on its 

 breast, like a duck, for instance, but rests upright on its tail, like a dog begging. As we were leaving 

 the rocks we saw an anxiously maternal Guillemot alight behind her egg, which, with a quiet poke of 

 her bill, she pushed between her legs. 



" The variety in the colour of the eggs of the Guillemot is something wonderful. We found 

 the following varieties, and no doubt a greater opportunity of selection would double or treble the 

 number, to say nothing of the additional varieties. Thirty eggs in my collection from the Fern 

 Islands vary in the ground colouring from dark blue-green and pale blue-green to white cream colour. 

 The character of the spots may be described as irregularly blotched, fantastically streaked, spotless, 

 or nearly so." Mr. Seebohm has also kindly allowed us to make use of his account of his 

 visit to the Flamborough cliffs, where there is another noted breeding-place for the Guillemots : 



