290 
alcad.t:. 
dragged into the boat. After a good many gasps, and a con- 
siderable spluttering of sea-water from bis mouth, bis only 
remark Avas, “ Eb, men I this is a sad story — I baye lost my 
snufif-box ! ” 
Sometimes, though rarely, the Guillemot ydll lay among 
Shags or Eazor-bills, but it. prefers keeping to its own particular 
portion of the cliff, ^vbicb is occupied by the same species, 
and ill all probability by the same iudiyiduals, year after year. 
In most cases these ranges are out of shot from the y^ater ; 
but eyen when otherwise, and the poor bmds constantly are 
thinned, they are as loath as any Highlander to abandon the 
home which has become dear to them. 
Among the crowded ledges, it is next to impossible to 
ascertain whether the Guillemot lays more than one egg in a 
season ; but by experiments in small retired crevices, where 
there are not more than half a dozen birds, I hawe satisfied 
myself that one only is laid, but that if this be remoyed yfithin 
a fey’ days another is deposited in its place. Such, hoy’eyer, 
does not happen y’hen incubation has lasted sufficiently long 
for the reproductiye organs to haye nearly regained their 
normal condition ; but I haye neyer yet tried the effect of 
remoying the second egg. In these outhfing situations also I 
haye time after time endeayoured to determine the number of 
days occupied by the process of incubation, but yfith a not 
yery satisfactory result ; calls in other directions, or unfay our- 
able y’eather, or some equally unayoidable cause, haying most 
proyokingly occurred at the critical time. The fey’ trusty’orthy 
egg-gatherers yffiom I haye questioned haye expressed their 
belief that exactly four yneks, or twenty-eight days, is the time ; 
but this estimate seems to be rather under the truth, — at any 
rate, I once discoyered a conspicuously marked egg, apparently 
newly laid, and examined it just thirty days afterynrds, and 
on carefully lifting a\yay a small portion of the shell found 
a hying bird within. With regard to the young birds them- 
selyes, ornithologists are still unable to decide how it is 
that, while some of the young remain upon the rocks, others, 
