THE LOOM. 
Ill 
IIL] 
places afford room for the hatching fowl. On the guillemot- 
fells proper, eggs lie beside eggs in close rows from the crown of 
the cliff to near the sea level, and the whole fell is also closely 
covered with seafowl, which besides in flocks of thousands and 
thousands fly to and from the cliffs, filling the air with their 
exceedingly unpleasant scream. The eggs are laid, without trace 
of a nest, on the rock, which is either bare or only covered with 
THE LOOM OR BRUNNICH’s GUILLEMOT. 
Swedish, Alka. (Uria Briinnicliii, Sabine.) 
old birds’ dung, so closely packed together, that in 1858 from a 
ledge of small extent, which I reached by means of a rope from 
the top of the fell, I collected more than half a barrel-full 
of eggs. Each bird has but one very large egg, grey pricked 
with brown, of very variable size and form. After it has been 
sat upon for some time, it is covered with a thick layer of birds’ 
dung, and in this way the hunters are accustomed to distinguish 
uneatable eggs from fresh. 
