206 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



Among the Guillemots the female lays only one large egg. They 

 feed on fishes, insects, and on Crustacea. They principally inhabit 

 northern regions, visiting our shores and other temperate climates 

 when the ice has invaded their summer home. In their migratory 

 journeys they must trust to their wings — which, however, as already 

 observed, are very short. They are consequently not possessed of 

 long powers of flight, and skim the water, rarely rising much above 

 the surface. Their progress, however, is rapid, but of short duration. 

 The Guillemots during winter are frequently seen in immense 

 numbers on Rockall Bank and on the banks of Newfoundland. So 

 little are they alarmed at the approach of a vessel, that should they 

 be directly in her track, they will only dive to save themselves. 

 These banks are several hundred miles from land. 



The whole race of aquatic birds of which we have spoken, 

 whether Divers, Penguins, Grebes, or Guillemots, are, in these northern 

 regions, a valuable source of revenue to the poor people whom lot 

 compels to live there, for they obtain in their feathers, skin, oil, and 

 eggs, clothing, food, and light. But to obtain what they truly consider 

 a blessing from heaven they have to surmount innumerable difficul- 

 ties, the birds often building their nests in islets almost unapproach- 

 able, or on rocks rising perpendicularly out of the water. Slung upon 

 seats hung from the summits of these crags, the courageous islanders 

 suspend themselves, to gather and make, so to speak, a harvest of 

 the sea-fowls' eggs. Others traverse the face of the rocky coast fur- 

 nished with a conical net attached to the end of a pole, and secure 

 the birds flying around them, much in the same manner as boys 

 catch butterflies in the meadows. 



But chasing these graceful swimmers at the foot of their rocky 

 retreat is mere trifling in comparison with the dramatic and dangerous 

 incidents which occur on the summits of the steep giant cliffs. The 

 intrepid inhabitants of the Faroe Islands, which are situated in the 

 Atlantic Ocean, to the north of Scotland, between Norway and Ice- 

 land, proceed as follows when in search for eggs : The fowler begins 

 operations by swarming, as schoolboys call it, up a pole, which car- 

 ries him to the first projecting ledge of rocks which will afford a 

 foot-hold. This point attained, he throws a knotted rope to his com- 

 panions, who soon join him on his perch. The same manoeuvre is 

 performed, stage by stage, until they reach the summit. But this is 

 nothing in comparison to the danger which is to come, viz., visiting 

 the recesses in which the nests are found. 



Upon the edge of the rock a beam is run out horizontally; to 

 this beam a two-inch rope, which is not less than 900 feet in 



