THE GUILLEMOT. 411 



the season ; if that egg be lost or taken away, another is laid to 

 supply its place. 



The men also assure you that, when the young guillemot gets to a 

 certain size, it manages to climb upon the back of the old bird, 

 which conveys it down to the ocean. Having carried a good tele- 

 scope with me, through it I saw numbers of young guillemots diving 

 and sporting on the sea, quite unable to fly ; and I observed others 

 on the ledges of the rocks, as I went down among them, in such 

 situations that, had they attempted to fall into the waves beneath, 

 they would have been killed by striking against the projecting points 

 of the intervening sharp and rugged rocks : wherefore I concluded 

 that the information of the rock-climbers was to be depended upon ; 

 and I more easily gave credit to it, because I myself have seen an 

 old swan sailing on the water with her young ones upon her back, 

 about a week after they had been hatched. 



He who rejoices when he sees all nature smiling around him, and 

 who takes an interest in contemplating the birds of heaven as they 

 wing their way before him, will feel sad at heart on learning the un- 

 merited persecution to which these harmless sea-fowl are exposed. 

 Parties of sportsmen, from all parts of the kingdom, visit Flamborough 

 and its vicinity during the summer months, and spread sad devastation 

 all around them. No profit attends the carnage ; the poor unfortu- 

 nate birds serve merely as marks to aim at, and they are generally 

 left where they fall. Did these heartless gunmen reflect, but for one; 

 moment, how many innocent birds their shot destroys ; how many 

 fall disabled on the wave, there to linger for hours, perhaps for days, 

 in torture and in anguish ; did they but consider how many helpless 

 young ones will never again see their parents coming to the rock 

 with food ; they would, methinks, adopt some other plan to try their 

 skill, or cheat the lingering hour. 



