456 
ALCADAS. 
amidst their taller neighbours, as they sit bolt upright 
upon their lofty nests. It has always been to me a matter 
of wonder that the eggs of the Guillemot are not swept al¬ 
together into the sea by the severe gales of wind by which 
these unsheltered rocks are visited. When coming unex¬ 
pectedly upon the breeding-places of these birds, I have 
observed that several of the eggs were precipitated into 
the sea by their too hasty flight; and great must be the 
destruction both of eggs and young ones, for many of the 
ledges of rock upon which they are found are barely wide 
enough to hold them. Were the eggs of the Guillemot 
shaped like those of the majority of birds, nothing could 
save them; their form, which is peculiar to themselves 
amongst the eggs of the sea-fowl, is their only protec¬ 
tion ; it gives them greater steadiness when at rest, and 
where they have room to roll, the larger end moving 
round the smaller in a circle, keeps them in their ori¬ 
ginal position: when placed upon the centre of a table 
and set in motion, they will not wander far. 
To any one who can derive pleasure from observing 
the habits of birds, and seeing them in their own wild, 
native haunts, one of the larger breeding-places must 
afford a pleasure which few things can give. I shall 
never forget the sensations of delight with which I have 
myself visited some of those in Shetland; the wild 
magnificence of the rocks, beautifully tinted here and 
there with many-coloured lichens, was alone sufficient 
to excite feelings of the most intense enjoyment, and 
far more so when peopled with tens of thousands of 
these interesting beings, covering their dark and bar¬ 
ren sides, from the sea upwards to a thousand feet above 
its deep blue waves, each species occupying its own par¬ 
ticular position; the kittiwakes first filling the ledges 
of the rock at a few feet from the surface of the water; 
