280 
COMMON GUILLEMOT 
comparison, as the stars of the firmament, or the sand upon 
the sea-shore.' 
The crowding sea-birds, which so moved to admiration 
these worthies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
belonged mainly, it is probable, to this species and the 
Puffin, which are still very abundant upon the Calf, to 
which, and the high cliffs of the adjacent end of the main 
island, the Common Guillemot is almost restricted, the Isle 
of Man in general lacking the sheer ledged walls of preci- 
pice which it prefers. A few have been seen, presumably 
breeding, on the Peel Hill cliffs ; on Stroin Vuigh there was 
in 1894 a small colony mixed with Eazorbills, but in 1899 
I observed here very few Guillemots, and since 1900 Eazor- 
bills only. Some one hundred and fifty birds nest in a 
picturesque cavernous situation on Bradda, a little way 
from Fleshwick, and a little further west on the same 
headland a few inhabit a very lofty and sheer face of rock. 
On the Calf they are abundant, both on the east and west, 
the precipices under the lighthouses and the opposite Stack 
holding a great many on their perpendicular sides, somewhat 
mixed on the main islet with the Kittiwake colony. (' On 
the west side of the Calf,' says Peltham (1798), 'the rocks 
are steep ; the quantity of birds called muirs, etc., in- 
credible.') About the Sugar Loaf, on the high cliff nearly 
under the ' Chasms,' they are also numerous, and easily 
observed from a salient point close to the enclosure. 
There is another station under Cronk Moar, a little west 
of Spanish Head. 
All the year round the Guillemot is found at a little 
distance to sea, and like the Razorbill, a few may frequently 
be observed near the coast. 
It arrives and leaves the stations almost at the same 
time as the Razorbill. Mr. Kermode relates that about 
1869 as many as seven hundred were found dead on 
