158 THE GUILLEMOT. 



they lay, and unattached, as on the palm of your 

 outstretched hand. You might see nine or ten, or 

 sometimes twelve, old guillemots in a line, so near 

 to each other that their wings seemed to touch 

 those of their neighbours ; and when they flew off 

 at your approach, you would see as many eggs as 

 you had counted birds sitting on the ledge. 



The eggs vary in size and shape and colour 

 beyond all belief. Some are large, others small 

 some exceedingly sharp at one end, and others 

 nearly rotund. Where one is green, streaked and 

 blotched with black, another has a milk-white 

 ground, blotched and streaked with light brown. 

 Others, again, present a very pale green colour, 

 without any markings at all ; while others are of a 

 somewhat darker green, with streaks and blotches 

 of a remarkably faded brown. In a word, nature 

 seems to have introduced such an endless inter- 

 mixture of white, brown, green, yellow, and black 

 into the shells of the eggs of the guillemots, that it 

 absolutely requires the aid of the well-set pallet of a 

 painter to give an adequate idea of their beautifully 

 blended variety of colouring. The pen has no 

 chance of success in attempting the description. 



The rock-climbers assure you that the guillemot, 

 when undisturbed, never lays more than one egg ; 

 but that, if it be taken away, she will lay another ; 

 and, if she be plundered of that, she will then pro- 

 duce a third ; and so on. If you dissect a guillemot, 

 you will find a knot of eggs within her. The rock- 

 climbers affirm that the bird can retain these eggs, 

 or produce them, according to circumstances. Thus, 



