The Egg Harvest 
at Bempton. 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
( I2 5) 
The Egg Harvest at Bempton. 
Illustrated by Photographs by Messrs, CLARKE and HYDE. 
Between Filey and Flamboro’ Head, on the 
Yorkshire coast, the sea is fronted by a six-mile 
stretch of precipitous cliffs, three to four hundred 
feet in height, and nowhere is it possible to 
ascend or descend these cliffs without the aid of 
a rope. 
Year after year vast flocks of sea birds make 
their temporary home upon the rocks during the 
breeding season. It is the favoured resort of the 
Guillemot, the Razorbill, and the Puffin; in fact, 
it is only here and on the Fame Islands that 
the Puffin is to be found upon the east coast. 
Descending the cliff; the climber is in many places 
in mid-air. 
The Puffin at Home. 
Quaint little creatures are these Puffins, with 
their great, brightly-coloured beaks, solemn ex¬ 
pression, and awkward appearance on land. Born 
fighters, they are ever ready to use their bills in 
defence of their nests, and woe betide the incau¬ 
tious hand that intrudes upon the privacy of a 
Puffin burrow while the tenant is at home. 
The Puffin, or Sea-Parrot, as it is sometimes 
called, lays but one egg in a hole or burrow in 
one of the steep, grass-covered slopes that are 
One of the eggers, 400 feet down below the surface 
of the cliffs, on a ledge with its natural tenants, the 
young chicks. 
found at intervals along the cliff face. This egg 
is at first whitish in colour, marked with pale 
lilac, but the birds, coming in wet from the sea 
into the burrow, soon cause it to get stained to a 
mud-brown. 
It is, however, the eggs of the Guillemot, laid 
upon every available ledge and in every crevice, 
that furnish the sturdy Yorkshire cliff-climbers 
with the major portion of their annual harvest. 
How the Egg Harvest is Gathered. 
The accompanying photographs show Mr. 
Wilkinson, of Bempton, who has had a life- 
