BLACK GUILLEMOT.
and on otliiT spots along the coast, I remarked that the breeding-quarters of these birds were often
situated under the large slabs of stone scattered over the ground, often at a distance of twenty or thirty
yards above high-water mark. Though taking Utile notice unless their haunts were too closely inspected,
when an alarm was once raised they usually beat a speedy retreat, and on making Iheir appearance
from beneath the shelter at once took wing, rising with almost the ease and rapidity of a Partridge.
The elevation in the fissures selected by this species for breeding-purposes is generally only sufficient
to allow- the birds to make their nay towards the eggs, which are usually located at the dislauce of
three or four feet from the entrance to the cavity. The crooked sticks commonly carried by Highland
shepherds proved most useful in extracting the few I needed as specimens; unless fresh laid, there were
invariably two eggs,
In a deep chasm among the rocks at Duncausby Head I noticed a pair of these birds feeding
their young licucalh a large grey moss-grown slab of stone lying on a slope green with grass and
ferns, on which a pair or two of Gulls were also nesting. The little Divers were busily engaged in
procuring food, and arrived on the scene repeatedly during the hours I remained on tho summit of the
cliffs watching I he swarms of sea-birds passing within view of my posituu; at various times one or the other
stopped to rest or clean its plumage on the slope at the edge of the precipice before dashing down to
the waves. I remarked that the visits paid by these Guillemots to their domicile occasionally attracted the
attention of a line old Great Black-hacked Gull, sitting demurely on her eggs within a few feet of their
quarters; now and then she turned her head iu a threatening manner, hut took no further notice.