On Crag and Sea-cliff. 243 



air that blows in from the German Ocean. The 

 " Pinnacles " at the Fame Islands are another famous 

 haunt of the Guillemot; the most attractive of all 

 the breeding-stations of this species throughout our 

 islands, owing to the exceptional ease with which 

 the birds can be observed. These pinnacles are a 

 group of flat-topped rocks, rising perpendicularly 

 from the sea, close to one of the islands, from which 

 a good view can be obtained right on to their table- 

 like summits. These are crowded, densely packed 

 in fact, with a struggling mass of Guillemots. When 

 the birds dash off and fly down headlong into the 

 sea, a still more extraordinary sight is presented; 

 for all over the surface are strewn hundreds of eggs 

 like great pears of almost every conceivable hue 

 and pattern of marking. The Guillemots are com- 

 paratively silent; but the scene is noisy enough, 

 because on the sides of the perpendicular rocks 

 numbers of Kitti wakes are nesting, and their cries 

 are incessant, sounding high above the surging 

 sea and the whirring of the wings of the depart- 

 ing Guillemots. Into many of these Kittiwakes' 

 nests we can look from the summit of the island 

 adjoining, and are thus able to count the eggs 

 or young as soon as the brooding birds are driven 

 off. 



Our next rocky haunt of sea-fowl lies far away to 

 the northward, and is the widely and justly famous 



