274 THE BLACK GUILLEMOT. 



heard so. Thus, reader, I might have been satisfied with the sayings of 

 others, and repeated that the bird in question lays one egg; but instead of 

 taking this easy way of settling the matter, I found it necessary to convince 

 myself of the fact by my own observation. I had therefore to receive many 

 knocks and bruises in scrambling over rugged crags and desolate headlands; 

 whereas, with less incredulity, I might very easily have announced to you 

 from my easy chair in Edinburgh, that the Black Guillemots of America 

 lay only a single egg. No true student of nature ought ever to be satisfied 

 without personal observation when it can be obtained. It is the "American 

 Woodsman" that tells you so, anxious as he is that you should enjoy the 

 pleasure of studying and admiring the beautiful works of Nature. 



To satisfy yourself as to the correctness of the statements which he here 

 lays before you, go to the desolate shores of Labrador. There, in the vernal 

 month of June, place yourself on some granite rock, against the base of 

 which the waves dash in impotent rage; and ere long you will see the gay 

 Guillemot coming from afar by the side of its mate. They shoot past you 

 on fluttering wings, and suddenly disappear. Go to the place; lay yourself 

 down on the dripping rock, and you will be sure to see the birds preparing 

 their stony nest, for each has brought a smooth pebble in its bill. See how 

 industriously they are engaged in raising this cold fabric into the form of a 

 true nest, before the female lays her eggs, so that no wet may reach them, 

 from the constant trickling of the waters beneath. Up to the height of two 

 or three inches the pebbles are gradually raised, the male stands by his 

 beloved; and some morning when you peep into the crevice, you observe 

 that an egg has been deposited. Two days after you find the number 

 complete. 



A closet-naturalist was quite surprised, I have been told, when he read in 

 one of my volumes that Grakles form no nests in one portion of the United 

 States, being there contented with merely dropping their eggs in the bottom 

 of a Woodpecker's hole; while in the Middle States the same species forms 

 a very snug nest. That his astonishment was great I do not in the least 

 doubt, especially as I know how surprised I was to find the Larus 

 argent atus breeding on fir-trees forty feet above the ground, and to see 

 three eggs, instead of one, placed on a bed of small pebbles beautifully 

 arranged, and every one belonging to a single pair of Black Guillemots. 

 Yet, good reader, as I have also been told, the same person had no doubt 

 whatever that ermines turn from brown to white in winter, that snakes and 

 crabs cast off their skins and shells, and that "fleas are not lobsters;" but 

 then the reason of his belief was simply that he had read of these things; 

 and his doubts as to the Grakles arose from the facts having been recently 



