COMMON GUILLEMOT. 
215 
to the water, their lengthened form, and continued 
multitudinous flight, giving them the appearance of 
a line. Some will however remain, the more anxi- 
ous for their young, and we have seen repeated 
shots fired without effect at birds who would merely 
look over the ledge, or creep farther hack out of 
harm’s way. The young are said to be carried 
down to the water by the parents ; this, we believe, 
has never been seen, but at the same time birds 
have been so often found in the sea, of an age so 
tender, as would lead observers to believe that they 
could not have reached it without assistance. After 
incubation, the broods scatter over the ocean and 
form the small parties which are at other times to 
be seen at sea. They frequent firths, and seem to 
float in and out with the tide, a few approaching 
pretty near the shore. In the open sea they are 
easily approached within shot with a boat ; but 
dive at the flash, and do not readily take wing. 
Some of them lose their shyness entirely and enter 
the harbours ; during last winter (1842-43) we saw 
several specimens in the open harbour of Newhaven 
(Firth of Forth), swimming and diving among the 
fishermen’s boats, and allowing themselves to be 
pursued by boys; and we understood that several 
birds came daily in, diving for the young fish that 
had resorted to a calmer part of the sea, or after the 
refuse from the fishing-boats. 
The Common Guillemot is found around all our 
coasts to the Shetland and Orkney Isles, and also 
around the shores of Temperate Europe, breeding in 
