THE FOOLISH GUILLEMOT. 269 



part assimilate with the dark hue of the rocks on which they stand. On the 

 other hand, if you approach them in the rear, the isle appears as if covered 

 with a black pall. 



Now land, and witness the consternation of the settlers! Each affrighted 

 leaves its egg, hastily runs a few steps, and launches into the air in silence. 

 Thrice around you they rapidly pass, to discover the object of your unwel- 

 come visit. If you begin to gather their eggs, or, still worse, to break them, 

 in order that they may lay others which you can pick up fresh, the 

 Guillemots all alight at some distance, on the bosom of the deep, and 

 anxiously await your departure. Eggs, green and white, and almost of 

 every colour, are lying thick over the whole rock; the ordure of the birds 

 mingled with feathers, with the refuse of half-hatched eggs partially sucked 

 by rapacious Gulls, and with putrid or dried carcasses of Guillemots, 

 produces an intolerable stench; and no sooner are all your baskets filled with 

 eggs, than you are glad to abandon the isle to its proper owners. 



On one occasion, whilst at anchor at Great Macatina, one of our boats was 

 sent for eggs. The sailors had eight miles to pull before reaching the Murre 

 Islands, and yet ere many hours had elapsed, the boat was again alongside, 

 loaded to a few inches of the gunwale, with 2500 eggs! Many of them, 

 however, being addle, were thrown overboard. The order given to the tars 

 had been to bring only a few dozens; but, as they said, they had forgotten ! 



The eggs are unaccountably large for the size of the bird, their average 

 length being three inches and three-eighths, and their greatest breadth two 

 inches. They are pyriform or elongated, with a slight compression towards 

 the smaller end, which again rather swells and is rounded at the extremity. 

 They afford excellent food, being highly nutritive and palatable, whether 

 boiled, roasted, poached, or in omelets. The shell is rough to the touch, 

 although not granulated. Some are of a lively verdigris colour, others 

 of different tints, but all curiously splashed, as it were, with streaks or 

 blotches of dark umber and brown. My opinion, however, is, that, when 

 first dropped, they are always pure white, for on opening a good number of 

 these birds, I found several containing an egg ready for being laid, and of a 

 pure white colour. The shell is so firm that it does not easily break, and I 

 have seen a quantity of these eggs very carelessly removed from a basket 

 into a boat without being damaged. They are collected in astonishing 

 quantities by "the eggers," and sent to distant markets, where they are sold 

 at from one to three cents each. 



Although the Guillemots are continually harassed, their eggs being carried 

 off as soon as they are deposited, and as long as the birds can produce them, 

 yet they return to the same islands year after year, and, notwithstanding all 

 the efforts of their enemies, multiply their numbers. 



