KEARTONS' NATURE PICTURES 



discharge of a 

 small cannon 

 aboard an excur- 

 sion steamer. In 

 such circumstances 

 it is quite pathetic 

 to watch a Guille- 

 mot darting after 

 her treasure in 

 helpless anguish as 

 it rushes down- 

 ward through the 

 air and falls with 

 a plop into the 

 sea. 



The eggs laid by this species present 

 an almost endless variation, both in 

 ground colour and markings, and it 

 would be almost impossible to select two 

 specimens exactly alike out of a col- 

 lection of thousands. Every tint of 

 ground colour, from white to pea-green 

 blue or purplish-brown, may be met 

 with, spotted, blotched, and streaked 

 with every shade of brown and black. 

 Another curious thing in regard to this 



GUILLEMOTS EGG. 



matter is the fairly well established fact 

 that an individual bird always lays the 

 same type of egg. 



Where Guillemots breed by the thou- 

 sand together on flat -topped rock stacks, 

 svich as the Pinnacles at the Fame 

 Islands, it is interesting to speculate 

 upon whether each bird recognises its 

 own egg, whilst it remains clean, by its 

 ground colour and markings. When 

 breeding on ledges it has been proved 

 beyond dispute, by marking birds, that 

 each individual returns to incubate its 

 own egg. 



When a young Guillemot is between 

 three and four weeks old it is taken 

 down to the sea by its mother. Some 

 observers say that she carries it on her 

 back, and others that she holds it in her 

 bill by one wing whilst she descends to 

 the water. 



Fishermen call this bird the Murre, 

 a name derived from the sound which 

 may be heard, morning, noon, and night, 

 wherever a vast colony has assembled 

 for breeding purposes. 



