410 THE GUILLEMOT. 



till they plunged into the ocean. It was easy to distinguish the 

 puffins from the razorbills in their descent: these presented a back 

 of a uniformly dark colour, those had a faint white diagonal line 

 running across the wings. The nests of the kittiwakes were close to 

 each other, on every part of the rocks which was capable of holding 

 them ; and they were so numerous as totally to defy any attempt to 

 count them. On the bare and level ledge of the rocks, often not 

 more than six inches wide, lay the eggs of the guillemots : some were 

 placed parallel with the range of the shelf; others, nearly so ; and 

 others, with their blunt and sharp ends indiscriminately pointing to 

 the sea. By no glutinous matter, nor any foreign body whatever, 

 were they affixed to the rock : bare they lay, and unattached, as on 

 the palm of your outstretched hand. You might see nine or ten, or 

 sometimes twelve, old guillemots in a line, so near to each other 

 that their wings seemed to touch those of their neighbours ; and 

 when they flew off at your approach, you would see as many eggs as 

 you had counted birds sitting on the ledge. 



The eggs vary in size and shape and colour beyond all belief. 

 Some are large, others small, some exceedingly sharp at one end, 

 and others nearly rotund. Where one is green, streaked, and blotched 

 with black, another has a milk-white ground, blotched and 

 streaked with light brown. Others, again, present a very pale-green 

 colour, without any markings at all; while others are of a somewhat 

 darker green, with streaks and blotches of a remarkably faded brown. 

 In a word, nature seems to have introduced such an endless inter- 

 mixture of white, brown, green, yellow, and black into the shells of 

 the eggs of the guillemots, that it absolutely requires the aid of the 

 well-set pallet of a painter to give an adequate idea of their beauti- 

 fully blended variety of colouring. The pen has no chance of success 

 in attempting the description. 



The rock-climbers assure you that the guillemot, when undis- 

 turbed, never lays more than one egg ; but that, if it be taken away, 

 she will lay another; and, if she be plundered of that, she will then 

 produce a third ; and so on. If you dissect a guillemot, you will find 

 a knot of eggs within her. The rock-climbers affirm that the bird 

 can retain these eggs, or produce them, according to circumstances. 

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



