COMMON GUILLEMOT
along Utt surface for sonic distance before it is enabled to make a fair start. When approaching their
breeding-quarters at any elevation on the elilfs, they are forced to make several extended circles on wing,
gradually mounting each linn- till a siiilleicnt. elevation is attained to allow them to drop on their respect ire
ledge*. The circuit of the Bass is generally made a few times before they are enabled to reach their quarters,
generally situated near the summit of the northern and western faces of the cliffs. The Pinnacles at the Kern
islands are a group of small square crags of rock, of no great elevation, to which hundreds of pairs of Guillemots
resort for breeding-purposes during summer; the tint tops of each are almost entirely covered with eggs, and the
bii'd> usual h succeed in reaching tin- highest points by IH iug si might to the s|n,t. When leaving their ledges
at the Bass, I remarked that these birds dropped a considerable height before appearing to gain any assistance
from their wings ami launching out towards the open sea. When the dense ranks assembled on the Pinnacles
are alarmed by the approach of a boat or a shot, a scene of indescribable confusion ensues : a general and
hurried start is made, some take wing at once, while others either dash down or fall helplessly into the water,
their flight being impelled by the swarms pressing on and endeavouring to follow in the same direction; eggs
and young are occasionally sacrificed, and lieing rolle i from the rx-k. drop down to the water, suffering not
unfrequently from contact with the projecting ledges in their descent.
While inspecting the various species of sea-fowl breeding IN countless thousands along the face of the
cliffs between Uunnet Head and Duncaushy, in June I860,1 noticed that the lowest nests (those at an elevation
of only thirty or forty feet above the waves) belonged to the Kittiwakes, their cradles being clustered thickly
together, ten or a dozen up to even a score fomiiug a single mass of seaweed, IN most eases well suffused with
guano. Razorbills occupied the highest stal ions immediately below the summit, and Guillemots were scattered
here and there over the central portion of the rocky face. The three larger (bills, the two Hlaekbacks and
the Herring-Gull, were also present, attending to their broods or eggs ou the grassy ledges at a moderate
elevation, and Black Guillemots were observed entering the dark cracks and crevices, as well as making their
way beneath the large slabs of rock lying on the sloping patches of rank vegetation, scattered here and there
along the whole range of cliffs. The positions ON the rocks in which the Guillemots, Razorbills, and
Kittiwakes had taken up their breeding-quarters were the same as those observed by Mr. MacGillivray during
his wanderings in the Northern Highlands. In vol. ii. of Us ' British Water Birds' (p. 321) be states :—" When
the cliffs are high, and other birds breed upon them, the Guillemot occupies a zone aliove the Kittiwakes and
below the Razorbills; but when the latter are not present they disperse over the face of the rocks."
The accuracy displayed by this excellent observer IN all bis descriptions contrasts strongly with the errors
often so obvious in some of the best-known and most expensive works on British Birds. In Gould's ' Birds
of Great Britain * this species is depicted at its breeding-quarters, and although the plate is lieautif ully executed
and the birds correctly drawn and coloured, the site for the ri-eeptiou of their eggs, a bright green grassy ledge,
is one on which I never observed them making an attempt to rear their young. The rocks in every instance
where I have examined their haunts were white with the droppings of the birds, and entirely free from any
hut the most scanty vegetation. The six eggs represented in the plate all exhibit a pale blue ground-colouring,
and correspond almost precisely in the black markings : judging from personal observation, 1 am of opinion that
the same tint is seldom, if ever, seen on all eggs in view ; indeed I doubt if a couple could be found exactly
alike on any range of cliffs. No one can deny that Gould's magnificent work gives Tar the liest representation
of the plumage of the feathered tribe ; the phints and general surroundings also are wonderfully truo
to nature; still all who have studied the birds while in Lfc and at their native haunts must regret that several
such inaccuracies as those referred to are to be found in its pages.
No eggs vary to such an extent as those of the Common Guillemot; the ground-tint is occasionally dark
or light blue or green of several different shades, speckled and streaked with black. At times, the whole shell
is almost a pure white or pale yellow with a few clouded grey markings ; the majority, however, are suffused
COMMON GUILLEMOT.
with brown and grey of various hues, the markings consisting of blotches, spots, and scrands of darker shades of
Hie same colours. To describe these curious eggs accurately would need an endless series of coloured plates.
Though the eggs of the Common Guillemot differ to such an extent, I have good cause for believing that
each bird always lays those of the same colour and markings. Towards the end of May ISiio I removed three
eggs from a small ledge on the north side of the B^iss Rock, and on visiting the spot, about, ten days later
found three more in the same situations, and so exactly like the former as to he undistinguishablc. Again
returning a fortnight later, three more, similar in colouring of the shell and corresponding almost mark for
mark, were obtained. No other Guillemots were breeding within twenty or thirty yards of that portion of the
rock, and though I frequently examined the spot from the summit through the glasses, no more than three
pairs frequenting the ledge were observed.
When the young are fit to leave the ledges on which they were hatched, the evidence or many trustworthy
individuals goes to prove that they are either carried down on their parents' backs or lifted in their beaks by
the neck, and so trans ported to their natural element. For my own part, I can offer no opinion on the subject,
having, in spite of many attempts in different localities, failed to witness the operation. Numbers of juv cniles
have fallen or been knocked over from a height of one hundred up to two hundred feet while I have been
near at hand, but unless striking against a projecting rock in their descent, they never, so far as I was able to
ascertain, sustained Hie slightest injury. In the summer of lfifio I reared one that dropped considerably over
two hundred feet from one of the highest ledges on the west side of the Bass Rock, and only missed the side
or our boat by a couple of feet. This interesting little stranger lived for three or four months, apparently
contented ar.d happy, roosting every night in the coal-cellar, where he climbed to the highest pinnacle of coal,
evidently imagining himself on his native Bass Rock. In the morning he generally appeared as a Black
Guillemot till restored to his natural colour by a salt-water bath in a large washing-tub. Like most favourites,
he came to an untimely end ; one morning after a heavy thunder-storm he was found dead at his uceusloiued
re-iing-placc ou the top of the coals, having perished from the combined effects or wet and cold, caused by the
bursting of a water-pipe over his head—dying where he sat, rather than make an attempt to quit his post.
In 1871 we took several young ones from the Bass Rock between the 10th and 13th of August ; these
appeared to be the latest stragglers left on the rock. The whole party proved exceedingly easy to rear, taking
the food offered to them with the greatest avidity ; they evinced a decided partiality for herrings, though when
these were not procurable they were forced to put up with whiting. While at Canty Bay the little divers were
confined in one of the hoathouscs, and we treated them daily to a swim in the waters of the Pirth. Having
been carried down to the shore they were flung some fifteen or twenty yards—as far as the men could pitch
them—out into the sea, when they immediately started back, sw miming, fluttering, and flapping, to the best of
their ability, uttering all the time their monotonous and plaintive cry "quill;/, quill'/, quills, '/"'^.''" u"d
appearing in the greatest trouble till, having been rolled ashore by the breakers, they succeeded in scrambling up
the shingle, and were safe back in charge of their captors. While sunning themselves on the rocks to dry their
milled i;o" n and sprouting quills, their greatest delight was to Crawl up the sleeves of the boatmen's rough
pea-jackets and endeavour to seek repose ; when shaken out again they resented the injury by gnfugyent to a
succession of shrill notes of lamentation. These birds were taken south fo Brighton, and lived in confinement
for several years ; there proved to be no necessity for pinioning them or cutting their wings, this species being
unable to rise from land unless assisted by the drop from the cliffs to which they resort for breeding-purposes.
At sea they usually flap over the water, striking the surface with their feet for from ten to twenty yards, or
perhaps double that distance", before rising on wing, and the pond to which they had access being only some five