MU. J. IT. GURNEY, JUN., ON BIRDS OF THE FARNE ISLANDS. 55 
among them from the other side of the chasm are treated with 
the utmost indifFerence. On these rocks they are as thick as they 
can possibly he; in fact, every new comer has the greatest diificulty 
in finding standing-room, and the eggs would all be knocked into 
the sea, if it was not that their tapering shape preserves them. 
It is extraordinary how upright a Guillemot sits whilst incubating, 
and tho great egg is quite lost to view in the hollow above the 
legs, the beak being used to help it in getting there, when by 
accident it is moved. The way they light and push one another 
is very absurd, and no Guillemot will budge an inch unless it 
is forced to. A Guillemot’s platform is at no time the cleanest 
place in tho world, and this pushing results in their white breasts 
being sullied with dirt and yelk and blood. Several may be seen 
to bring fish, which they show no inclination to eat, and these do 
not add to tho savouriness of tho common table. 
“ Ringed ” Guillemot. 
Tho Ringed Guillemot is probably as plentiful as it ever was. 
I counted twenty-seven on the nearest pinnacle rock to the 
mainland without taking down the glasses from my eyes, and 
this was out of, probably, a gross total of two hundred and seventy 
Guillemots. That their numbers should not diminish is much 
against tho Ringed Guillemot being a distinct species; for, it may 
be fairly argued, that it would die out in many places before the 
common kind, as the Roseate Tern and the Chough have done 
before their more abundant congeners. 
There was not a single Razorbill to be seen on the pinnacles, 
and this species appears to be rather rare at the Fames. The 
weight of a Guillemot is 2 lb. 4 oz. ; of a Razorbill, 1 lb. 3 oz. ; 
and of a Puffin, 1 1 oz. 
Puffin. 
The “ Tommy Noddies ” come to the islands in April. Selby 
says about the middle of the month (P>rit. Orn. vol. ii. p. 440), but 
several years ago I remember counting about thirty on the 5th. 
They nest in the grassy turf, and the young Puffins are generally 
too far in to bo easily reached. Moreover, Puffins’ holes, like 
Shearwaters’, sometimes have two or three passages, which run 
in irregular fashion twelve inches or so below the surface. 
