348 BRITISH BIRDS 



striking in appearance than the razorbill, in its habits it is just 

 as interesting. It is found in the breeding season on all parts of our 

 coasts where extensive rocky cliffs and headlands exist, and it has 

 not been driven away by persecution. At some points on the coast, 

 as at Bempton Cliffs and Flamborough Head, and at the Fame 

 Islands, and other localities farther north, the guillemots are still 

 exceedingly numerous ; south of Yorkshire they have greatly 

 diminished in numbers, and several of the old breeding-stations have 

 been abandoned. 



On the sea their habits are similar to those of the razorbill : they 

 swim, dive, and fly in strings in the same manner. In appearance 

 the two species differ considerably. The guillemot has a dusky 

 brown or mouse-coloured upper plumage, and a straight, sharp beak, 

 very different to the massive weapon of the razorbill. 



Early in spring the guillemots begin to gather from the neigh- 

 bouring seas at their old breeding- stations on the summits and sides 

 of cliffs that face the ocean. Of all birds that breed in communities, 

 they are the most social, or, at all events, crowd closest together. 

 Where they breed on the side of the cliff, as at Flamborough, they 

 may be seen standing in close rows and groups on every ledge or 

 jutting rock large enough to afford them a footing. A strange and 

 fascinating spectacle is presented when the cliff is looked at from 

 below, and the guillemots are seen in thousands, row above row, 

 lessening in size by distance until, near the summit of the vast 

 precipice, they appear no bigger than dippers ; all standing erect, 

 their backs to the dark stone wall, and their shiny, white breasts to 

 the sea. It is also strange to see them gathered on the flat, table- 

 like tops of the * Pinnacles,' a group of isolated, precipitous rocks 

 at the Fames ; for here the space they have is not sufficient to pro- 

 perly accommodate the vast number of birds that resort to it. Their 

 appearance forcibly reminds the spectator of a human crowd on 

 some fete day in a populous city; but the bird-crowd does not 

 move or sway : each guillemot keeps its place, for it is standing 

 over its own egg, which must be kept warm at any cost. In spite 

 of this fixity they are all very alert and lively, turning their beaks 

 about this way and that, and, when alarmed, all bobbing and bow- 

 ing their heads as if to salute the intruder. Although silent birds 

 when on the sea, the guillemots become loquacious at their breeding- 

 grounds. They are very excitable, and when two or three neighbours 

 quarrel, as they frequently do, or a bird returned from the sea drops 

 on to a ledge where others are standing, or when male and female 



