own use ; and amongst tJie thickest ranks of these, a ieu 

 Guillemots occasionally lay their eggs, having, when sit- 

 ting upoii them, a singularly ludicrous and pert appearance 

 amidst their taller neighbours ; a place, both as to situation 

 and company, very contrary to their usual habits. It is to 

 me a matter of great wonder that their eggs are not swept 

 altogether into the sea, by the severe gales of wind to which 

 these unsheltered rocks are exposed. It has been supposed 

 by some that there is a glutinous matter attached to them to 

 keep them there, but this is certainly not the case w^ith the 

 many which I have handled on the spot. When coming un- 

 expectedly upon the birds, I have observed several of the eggs 

 precipitated into the sea in their too hasty retreat ; many of 

 the ledges of rock on which they are laid, are barely wide 

 enough to hold them, and yet here the young ones are to be 

 hatched, and to be brought up ; many of them must un- 

 doubtedly be destroyed. To any one who can derive plea- 

 sure from observing the habits of birds, and seeing them in 

 their own Avild native haunts, one of their larger breeding- 

 places must afford a pleasure wdiich few things can give. I 

 shall never forget the sensations of delight with which I have 

 myself witnessed some of those in Shetland ; the wild mag- 

 nificence of the rocks alone was sufficient to excite feelings 

 of the most intense enjoyment, and far more so, when peo- 

 pled with tens of thousands of these interesting beings, cover- 

 ing their dark and barren sides from the sea to upwards of a 

 thousand feet above you, each species occupying its own ])ar- 

 ticular part : the Kittivvakes beginning at a few feet from 

 its surface, the Guillemots and the Razor-bills succeeding, 

 and, above them, the Greater and Lesser Back-backed and 

 Herring Gulls : the multitudes passing around you in their 

 busy flight contrasting finely with each otlier, Irojn the 

 slow, majestic soar of the Greater Black-backed Gull, to 

 the rapid, short-winged, bustling flight of the Puffin ; the 

 \arious mingled cries of the different species, the loud bark 



