144 FOOLISH GUILLEMOT. 



white, and almost of every colour, are lying thick over the whole rock ; 

 the ordure of the birds mingled with feathers, with the refuse of half- 

 hatched eggs partially sucked by rapacious Gulls, and with putrid or 

 dried carcasses of Guillemots, produces an intolerable stench ; and no 

 sooner are all your baskets filled with eggs, than you are glad to abandon 

 the isle to its proper owners. 



On one occasion, whilst at anchor at Great Macatina, one of our boats 

 was sent for eggs. The sailors had eight miles to pull before reaching 

 the Murre Islands, and yet ere many hours had elapsed, the boat was 

 again alongside, loaded to a few inches of the gunwale, with 2500 eggs ! 

 Many of them, however, being addle, were thrown overboard. The order 

 given to the tars had been to bring only a few dozens ; but, as they said, 

 they had forgotten ! 



The eggs are unaccountably large for the size of the bird, their ave- 

 raffe lensth being three inches and three-eighths, and their greatest 

 breadth two inches. They are pyriform or elongated, with a slight com- 

 pression towards the smaller end, which again rather swells and is rounded 

 at the extremity. They afford excellent food, being highly nutritive and 

 palatable, whether boiled, roasted, poached, or in omelets. The shell is 

 rough to the touch, although not granulated. Some are of a lively ver- 

 digris colour, others of different tints, but all curiously splashed, as it were, 

 with streaks or blotches of dark vnnber and brown. My opinion, how- 

 ever, is, that, when first dropped, they are always pure white, for on open- 

 ing a good number of these birds, I found several containing an egg ready 

 for being laid, and of a pure white colour. The shell is so firm that it 

 does not easily break, and I have seen a quantity of these eggs very care- 

 lessly removed from a basket into a boat without being damaged. They 

 are collected in astonishing quantities by " the eggers," to whom I have 

 already given a character, and sent to distant markets, where they are 

 sold at from one to three cents each. 



Although the Guillemots are continually harassed, their eggs being 

 carried off as soon as they are deposited, and as long as the birds can 

 produce them, yet they return to the same islands year after year, and, 

 notwithstanding all the efforts of their enemies, multiply their numbers. 



The Foolish Guillemot, as I have said, lays only a single egg, which 

 is the case with the Thick-billed Guillemot also. The Razor-billed Auk 

 lays two, and the Black Guillemot usually three. I have assured myself 

 of these facts, not merely by observing the birds sitting on th?ir eggs, 



