THE GUILLEMOT. 159 



if she be allowed to hatch her first egg, she lays no 

 more for the season ; if that egg be lost or taken 

 away, another is laid to supply its place. 



The men also assure you that, when the young 

 guillemot gets to a certain size, it manages to climb 

 upon the back of the old bird, which conveys it 

 down to the ocean. Having carried a good tele- 

 scope with me, through it I saw numbers of young 

 guillemots, diving and sporting on the sea, quite 

 unable to fly ; and I observed others on the ledges 

 of the rocks, as I went down among them, in such 

 situations that, had they attempted to fall into the 

 waves beneath, they would have been killed by 

 striking against the projecting points of the inter- 

 vening sharp and rugged rocks : wherefore I con- 

 cluded that the information of the rock-climbers 

 was to be depended upon ; and I more easily gave 

 credit to it, because I myself have seen an old swan 

 sailing on the water with her young ones upon her 

 back, about a week after they were hatched. 



He who rejoices when he sees all nature smiling 

 around him, and who takes an interest in contem- 

 plating the birds of heaven as they wing their way 

 before him, will feel sad at heart on learning the 

 unmerited persecution to which these harmless 

 seafowl are exposed. Parties of sportsmen, from 

 all quarters of the kingdom, visit Flamborough and 

 its vicinity during the summer months, and spread 

 sad devastation all around them. No profit attends 

 the carnage; the poor unfortunate birds serve merely 

 as marks to aim at, and they are generally left 

 where they fall. Did these heartless gunmen reflect, 



