54 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 
LOVE ON THE SHORE 
The business of living creatures is two-fold 
—caring for self and caring for others. Per- 
haps we have said enough about caring for self 
on the shore; what about caring for others? 
The mother-seals nurse their young ones 
among the rocks, and many birds, such as guil- 
lemots and razor-bills, puffins and kittiwakes, 
make their nests on the cliffs. When we see the 
narrow ledges on which the guillemots and the 
razor-bills lay their eggs—just one for each 
bird—we wonder that there is any successful 
hatching at all. ‘The wind searches every 
shelf, and there is such a crowded coming and 
going of mothers that the egg has every chance 
of being jostled. But Darwin asked natu- 
ralists to notice the pear-like shape of the egg 
and the particular way in which it moves 
when it is twirled in an eddy or jostled by the 
bird’s feet. Because of its shape it tends not to 
roll, but simply to rotate on its short axis with- 
out moving from its place. If we give it a 
vigorous twirl on a smooth table, it simply 
rotates without rolling. For this reason, then, 
it does not fall off the narrow ledge into the 
sea. This is a simple example of what is 
