THE GUILLEMOT. 



159 



if she be allowed to hatch her first egg, she lays no 

 more for the season; if that egg be lost or taken 

 away, another is laid to supply its place. 



The men also assure you that, when the young 

 guillemot gets to a certain size, it manages to climb 

 upon the back of the old bird, which conveys it down 

 to the ocean. Having carried a good telescope with 

 me, through it I saw numbers of young guillemots, 

 diving and sporting on the sea, quite unable to fly ; 

 and I observed others on the ledges of the rocks, as 

 I went down among them, in such situations that, 

 had they attempted to fall into the waves beneath, 

 they would have been killed by striking against the 

 projecting points of the intervening sharp and rug- 

 ged rocks : wherefore I concluded that the informa- 

 tion of the rock-climbers was to be depended upon ; 

 and 1 more easily gave credit to it, because I myself 

 have seen an old swan sailing on the water with her 

 young ones upon her back, about a week after they 

 had been hatched. 



He who rejoices when he sees all nature smiling 

 around him, and who takes an interest in contem- 

 plating the birds of heaven as they wing their way 

 before him, will feel sad at heart on learning the 

 unmerited persecution to which these harmless sea- 

 fowl are exposed. Parties of sportsmen, from all 

 quarters of the kingdom, visit Flamborough and 

 its vicinity during the summer months, and spread 

 sad devastation all around them. No profit attends 

 the carnage; the poor unfortunate birds serve merely 

 as marks to aim at, and they are generally left 

 where they fall. Did these heartless gunmen reflect. 



