FLAMBOROUGH HEAD. 15 



joint article ('Zoologist,' 2nd ser. vol. vii. 1872)— " Ornithological Notes 

 from Norfolk;" and the latter writer says (p. 3227) : — 



^'^ Guillemot (Sept. 1872). — In the beginning of the month some young 

 were seen off Cromer by a fisherman. It appears that some of the young 

 Alcadce wander down here from Flamborough long before they are able 

 to fly." 



Mr. Robert Gray and Mr. Thomas Anderson remark (' Birds of 

 Ayrshire and Wigtownshire,' p. 48) : — 



'" Towards the close of summer large companies of these birds 

 occasionally congregate near the shore, and remain there for days in calm 

 weather, over the sandbanks where their food is obtained." 



Mr. Robert Gray also (in ' Birds of the West of Scotland,' p. 421) says, 

 at Ailsa Craig the keeper " has seen the parent birds daily taking " the 

 young " down upon their backs to the sea, and unceremoniously pitching 

 them off when within a few feet of the water. He has also observed them 

 seize their young ones by the hind neck, as a cat would do its kittens, 

 and, after a moment's hesitation, launch from their high perches, and 

 descend with an unsteady flutter till they could drop them with safety." 



It will be observed in one of the lithographs that boys are descending 

 by a rope ; this was the case at the time. It is needless to repeat a thing 

 so often described. 



Waterton mentions, in his article on the Guillemot, that while at 

 Flamborough " one of the climbers grinned purposely, and showed his 

 upper jaw ... ; a stone falling had driven two of his teeth down his 

 throat." 



Lives are lost at times. In Anderson's ' Guide to the Highlands and 



