150 BLACK GUILLEMOT. 



They shoot past you on fluttering wings, and suddenly disappear. Go 

 to the place ; lay yourself down on the dripping rock, and you will be 

 sure to see the birds preparing their stony nest, for each has brought a 

 smooth pebble in its bill. See how industriously they are engaged in 

 raising this cold fabric into the form of a true nest, before the female lays 

 her eggs, so that no wet may reach them, from the constant trickling of 

 the waters beneath. Up to the height of two or three inches the pebbles 

 are gradually raised, the male stands by his beloved ; and some morning 

 when you peep into the crevice, you observe that an egg has been de- 

 posited. Two days after you find the number complete. 



A closet-naturalist was quite surprised, I have been told, when he 

 read in one of my volumes that Grakles form no nests in one portion 

 of the United States, being there contented Avith merely dropping their 

 eggs in the bottom of a Woodpecker's hole ; while in the Middle States 

 the same species forms a very snug nest. That his astonishment was 

 great I do not in the least doubt, especially as I know how surprised 

 I was to find the Larus argentatus breeding on fii'-trees forty feet above 

 the ground, and to see three eggs, instead of one, placed on a bed of 

 small pebbles beautifully arranged, and every one belonging to a single 

 pair of Black Guillemots. Yet, good Reader, as I have also been told, 

 the same person had no doubt whatever that ermines turn from brown 

 to white in winter, that snakes and crabs cast off their skins and shells, 

 and that " fleas are not lobsters ;" but then the reason of his belief was 

 simply that he had read of these things ; and his doubts as to the Grakles 

 arose from the facts having been recently reported by a stranger from the 

 " far west," who, it seems, talked of things which he had not read of be- 

 fore. 



Whilst in Labrador, I was delighted to see with what judgment the 

 Black Guillemot prepares a place for its eggs. Whenever the spot chosen 

 happens to be so situated as to preclude damp, not a pebble does the bird 

 lay there, and its eggs are placed on the bare rock. It is only in what I 

 call cases of urgency that this trouble is taken. About fifty or sixty 

 pebbles or bits of stone are then used, and the number is increased or dimi- 

 nished according to circumstances. 



The eggs of this species, which appear disproportionately large, mea- 

 sure two inches and three eighths in length, by an inch and five-eighths 

 in breadth. Their form is regular ; they are rather rough to the touch, 

 although not granulated ; their ground colour an earthy white, thickly 



