4282 THE ZooLoGist—JANvuARY, 1875. 
ungratified; leaving this singular bird in abeyance, and allowing 
it full liberty to make seasonal changes in the size, shape and 
colour of its beak, we will accompany Dr. Saxby to its breeding 
station, and that of the guillemot, in the far, far north. Whence it 
comes in the spring, and whither it goes in the autumn, are questions 
that may yet form much matter for speculation and research. 
“My first opportunity of forming intimate acquaintance with the nesting 
habits was gained in the course of a memorable day’s scramble among the 
cliffs at Hermaness, in company with one of the best of the professed crags- 
men of Shetland, one fine day in June, 1861. To get well up to the,slopes 
on which the puffins were breeding it was necessary to make a long circuit, 
passing the guillemot ranges; and very sufficiently did my heart misgive me, 
on looking at these latter from the brow of the cliff, but my guide assured me 
that if I had head enough he would take me by a ‘road’ which a child might 
travel. Accordingly, after going several hundred yards along the edge, we 
began the descent. The smooth short grass rendered our footing somewhat 
insecure, but with a little care the difficulty was overcome, and a few minutes 
brought us to a rough uneven steep covered with large stones, from beside 
one of which rose a lesser blackbacked gull from three eggs. Presently after 
passing the slope I received a wrinkle as to the so-called ‘road.’ My com- 
panion walked to the edge of a large mass of rock on which we were 
standing, told me to wait until he was ready to help me, let himself over the 
rock, and then, hanging by his arms, dropped down for several feet. There 
was nothing for it but to put on my boots, which until now had been carried 
on my back, and to follow his example, landing safely upon a sort of narrow 
platform, though it must be owned I should not have been much inclined 
to try it had there not been a pair of stout arms ready to catch me in case 
of a slip. However, thus fairly in for it, I once more removed my boots, 
and followed my companion, in whose safety it need not be said, I now took 
a most lively interest. The climbing was far from easy, but still on we 
went, now up, now down, sometimes passing herring gull’s eggs, sometimes 
lesser blackbacks’ and once discovered a nest of young rock pipits, evidently 
hatched about a week. Suddenly a well-known scent—none of the sweetest, 
by the way—made known that the guillemots were at hand, and in a few 
minutes we were in the very thick of them. They sat in rows, eight or ten 
together, sometimes a score or more, some upon their solitary egg, others 
upon none at all, but most of them so tame that we could have knocked 
them down with a long stick. The ledges upon which they were sitting 
were so whitened that scarcely an inch of the rock itself was7visible, and the 
footing was occasionally rendered somewhat precarious by the same cause, 
the rock being so slippery. We found the ringed guillemot as well as the 
common species, and took especial pains to keep the eggs of the two 
