The Bird Book 



Just off the island are some large stacks of 

 rock, some two hundred feet high, on whose broad 

 benches, or comparatively flat summits, hundreds 

 of Guillemots nest together and present a curious 

 sight. Their necks are long, closely feathered, 

 and almost continually moving, so that when a 

 number of birds are watching an intruder, first 

 with one eye and then the other, twisting and 

 turning their necks in the most extraordinary 

 manner, their whole appearance is remarkably 

 suggestive of a like number of snakes. 



On the ledges the birds sit with their breasts 

 to the wall of rock, for the drab brown colouring 

 on the head, neck and back is, of course, much 

 less conspicuous than their white breasts would be. 

 The brooding bird sits with the egg between its 

 legs, while a portion of the stomach is bared of 

 feathers for its reception. When suddenly dis- 

 turbed they hurriedly take flight, often kicking 

 their eggs off the ledges as they go, whence they 

 may have a fall of several hundred feet before 

 being shattered on the rocks beneath. 



Probably the eggs of no species of bird vary so 

 much, both in ground colour and marking, as 

 those of the Guillemot. Some are cream-coloured, 

 scrawled all over with zig-zag markings of brown ; 

 some are almost white, mottled with marble-like 

 markings ; others are covered with large blotches 

 of black ; yet I think it may be said that the most 

 usual type is deep blue or bluish-green, marked 

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