120 Ailsa Craig and its Birds. 



leaving a most extraordinary collection behind them. The 

 guillemot's egg, which is large and of a handsome shape, is 

 very variable in colour, and of all shades, from pure white to a 

 deep green, many being spotted with fantastic characters and 

 intricate lines, which baffle description or portraiture. The 

 sight of so many, therefore, lying exposed on the bare rock, is 

 one of no common interest. On such occasions many hundreds 

 may be seen uncovered, all nearly touching one another ; and 

 when the birds come pouring in towards the ledges, after 

 having been disturbed, each flying directly to its own egg, the 

 infinite variety of colouring, or private marks, so to speak, may 

 be looked upon as an all-wise arrangement for keeping up the 

 harmony of the settlement. 



The guillemot feeds its young with herring fry, which it 

 brings to the rock half swallowed, the tails being invariably 

 seen outside the bill. The razor-bill is not so industrious, for 

 he may be observed at any hour dozing on his perch, watching 

 the puffins coming to their burrows with a supply of sand-eels ; 

 then he sallies out, and buffets the poor Mormon till the fishes 

 are dropped, after which he has but to descend, and pick them 

 up. This mid-air robbery is not always so easily settled; for, 

 as both birds are flying with tremendous force — the one hurry- 

 ing towards the rock and the other launching from it — the 

 collision occasionally causes their death. A few weeks ago a 

 friend, while cruising past the craig, observed a puffin and 

 razor-bill strike each other dead by coming into sudden and 

 forcible collision; but his skipper, probably unaware of the 

 razor-bhTs predatory habits, assigned as a reason that they 

 had not ported their helms. 



On descending on one occasion the grassy slopes, when all 

 the birds were hatching, I approached the perpendicular walls 

 of rock facing the south, on which the guillemots, razor-bills, 

 Bolan geese, and kittiwakes were sitting in congregations out- 

 numbering all calculation. A party happened to be shooting 

 from a boat close to the base of the cliffs. The birds on the 

 upper shelves, when disturbed by successive shots, resembled a 

 heavy fall of large snow-flakes, the lower stratum of kittiwakes 

 appearing from above ;is a flickering shower of white particles. 

 Having crept cautiously to the verge of the precipice, and 

 thrust my chin over the sharp edge of a pillar, my heels being 

 meanwhile held by :i companion behind, I had a satisfactory 

 view. Looking down rem- hundred and fifty feet, I Observed 

 that the gulls and other birds floating <»n wing uear the water 

 had no particular form, on account of the dista,nco ; but there 

 could be no doubl as to the specific identity of the black imps 

 just under my nose. These were young guillemots and razor- 

 bills, the old birds being beside them, anxiously poking out 



