428 THE BIRDS OF DEVON. 



Stacks, off the coast of Pembrokeshire, with various smaller nesting- 

 stations on the cliffs fronting the sea on the mainland. The single large 

 egg of the Guillemot is placed on a bare ledge on the cliff, without any 

 nest being made, and in its colour and markings is among the most 

 beautiful of all eggs laid by birds, the Guillemot's eggs from Lundy 

 ranking high for the boldness and variety of their markings. In shape 

 the Guillemot's egg is more pyriform than that of the Razorbill, and is 

 ornamented with a greater profusion of delicate scroll-work and blotches 

 of various shades ; while the ground-colour of the egg ranges through 

 numerous tints of white, green, and red. The intertwisted line-markings 

 and blotches upon the eggs of the Guillemots are fancifully ascribed by 

 some to the birds as they sit upon the rocks continually seeing beneath 

 them the long ribbons of the seaweed moved to and fro by the waves ! 

 — a theory reminding us of the Patriarch Jacob and his ewes. There is 

 another ingenious idea respecting the egg, which is said never to be 

 blown off the ledges by the wind, however rough it may be, because, 

 " owing to the centre of gravity," it only revolves upon its axis on the 

 same spot ! But alas ! for theory when confronted by fact, for after 

 rough winds numerous eggs may be seen smashed upon the rocks and 

 shingle beneath, and often the clumsy Guillemot herself, as she flies off 

 towards the water, rolls her owai egg over to destruction. "While we have 

 been watching them we have sometimes wondered how each bird knew 

 her own egg, when there have been so many closely resembling one 

 another deposited on almost identical ledges. The Guillemots are said 

 to carry their young down to the water, but there is some conflicting 

 testimony as to how they do it. 



On Torbay we have found Common Guillemots very abundant in the 

 autumn, when they have been in great variety of plumage, some having 

 then light grey backs, both immature birds and old birds in a transition 

 stage being equally common. Mr. J, Gatcombe recorded from Plymouth 

 the early date at which the old birds resumed the full breeding-dress, 

 noticing some which appeared in it in the first week of January, and con- 

 sidered that this early assumption of the summer plumage had led 

 Col. Montagu to suppose that the Common Guillemot did not vary in its 

 dress at any time of the year. Like the Razorbill, the Common Guillemot 

 very rarely comes into the estuaries, but little jjarties may be encountered 

 almost anywhere on the salt water at a short distance from the shore at 

 any time of the year. The Common Guillemot flies under water in its 

 pursuit of fish, as we have witnessed the birds doing which are kept in 

 tanks at the Brighton Aquarium, and in the Fish-house at the Zoological 

 Gardens, little silvery bubbles of air ascending upwards to the surface of 

 the water from the birds' bodies. 



In the summer-time the farmers who reside around St. David's, in 

 Pembrokeshire, fatten their calves with custard made from the eggs of 

 the Common Guillemot taken on Ramsey Island, and large quantities are 

 used by sugar refineries. 



The Guillemots off the South Devon coast are mainly supplied from the 

 Scilly Isles, and from various nesting-stations along the Dorset coast. 



