BLACK GUILLEMOT. 
463 
where they had taken them in previous years, and were 
usually successful in again finding them. This species is 
rather later in its time of incubation than the common 
guillemot, razor-bill, or puffin. I obtained two eggs on 
the sixth of June, but the generality of them were not 
laid before the fifteenth or sixteenth of the same month. 
It was upon the lone and rarely visited island of Foula 
that I enjoyed the greatest treat in my bird-nesting ex¬ 
perience. We had met with little success upon the other 
islands of the group; my companions had left me, and I 
was landed here alone. It was so foggy that the fisher¬ 
men could not venture out to sea. I made known my 
wants to a crowd of the people who surrounded me as I 
leapt ashore; and that same evening a great part of the 
population of the island—men, women, and children— 
were seeking birds' eggs. I had offered certain prices for 
the eggs of different species, and had not been more than 
three hours there when I was dismayed at my success. 
My small money was very soon gone, as one after an¬ 
other of my agents came crowding in. Eggs which I 
had despaired of seeing, were covering every table in 
my room, and amongst them some dozens of the eggs of 
this species—then nearly all fresh laid. Amongst so many, 
I was surprised to find so little variation: two speci¬ 
mens, instead of having the usual bluish colouring, were 
warmly tinted with pink ; and one only—and I have 
never seen another like it — was tinted with orange- 
yellow, and richly spotted with red-brown ; it lias been 
figured in both of the previous editions of this work, 
and is now in the collection of Mr. Hancock, All the 
rest bore a general resemblance to the first figure; about 
one half of them differed from it only in having the 
ground-colour white, instead of blue, the spots for the 
most part smaller, and more regularly disposed ; they 
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