Sea 9^ Shore Birds 



146 



Others are creamy white, covered with Egyptian- 

 looking hieroglyphics, whilst others are sea-green or 

 pale brown, all more or less blotched and scribbled 

 over with black and deep brown lines and spots. 



These eggs are extremely thick in the shell, as 

 well they may be, considering they are laid on the 

 bare and rough surface of the rock. 



I expect that if a guillemot begins by laying a 

 blue egg, she continues to do so each successive year ; 

 and so also with eggs of other tints and colours. 



Speaking of eggs, it would seem as if puffins had 

 not always laid theirs under the ground, for though 

 white to the chief extent, they are faintly blotched 

 with big grey spots, which, when the empty egg- 

 shell is held up to the light, show very clearly and 

 in greater quantities. 



Probably, therefore, the ancestors of the puffins 

 originally laid their eggs, like razor-bills and guille- 

 mots, more or less in the open air. Now that they 

 do so no longer, the need of colours and spots has 

 departed, as protective marks. Maybe that in cen- 

 turies to come their eggs, if the puffins continue 

 their present habits in nesting, will be like the 

 Manx shearwaters, pure white. These sea-birds must, 

 I fancy, be very long-lived, otherwise how could they 

 manage to maintain the countless numbers in which 

 they gather year after year at their favourite nesting- 

 places ? 



For in the case of guillemots, razor-bills, and 

 puffins, as instances, only one egg is laid. 



They /00k like birds that might be any age ; in fact. 



