colours and appearance, and the seasonal changes of its
plumage, that the history of the one species before given is
to a great extent the history of the other, and repetition
would he useless. It is, however, more numerically abundant,
and its eggs are more systematically collected than
those of any other member of the family, especially on the
cliffs near Flamborougli, one of its best known and most
accessible breeding-stations. Colonies exist, unless extirpated
by persecution, wherever there are cliffs with suitable
ledges, throughout the British Islands ; little more than forty
years ago there was one at Cromer, and Mr. J. H. Gurney
can remember the existence of one on the comparatively
low shelves of Hunstanton, in Norfolk.
Like the Razor-bill, the Guillemot lays only a single egg,
but this is of large size, and very variable in colour, scarcely
two being found precisely alike. It is generally of a fine
bluish-green, more or less blotched and streaked with dark
reddish-brown, or black; but sometimes these markings are
distributed over a white ground-colour: often the eggs are of
a plain green or white colour, without any streaks or blotches,
and there is a rich reddish-brown variety which is comparatively
rare ; the form of the egg is that of an elongated
handsome pear, measuring 3'25 in. by 2 in. in breadth at the
larger end. The eggs of the Guillemot are readily distinguished
from those of the Razor-bill, with which they are
most likely to be mixed, by the length to which the smaller
end of the former is drawn out. The gatherers of these
and various other rock-birds’ eggs at different parts of the
coast let themselves down, or are let down by others, over
the edge of the cliff with one or two ropes fixed to or hitched
round a crow-bar driven into the ground above. These men,
from practice, traverse narrow ledges of the rock, picking up
the eggs along a path of only a few inches in breadth with
steadiness and certainty. The Guillemot makes no nest,
and the female sits in an upright position upon her single
egg during incubation, which lasts nearly a month. It is,
perhaps, unnecessary to combat the fanciful idea once prevalent,
that the eggs are caused to adhere to the rock by some
kind of glue-like secretion provided by the bird ; as a matter
of fact, when the birds are suddenly and wantonly disturbed
by the firing of a gun close to their breeding-places, the eggs
may be seen to fall in showers, as the Editor ha3 often witnessed
at Lundy Island, where this disturbance, in order to
show the number of rock-birds, is one of the amusements of
the gaping tourist. So thick is the shell of the egg, that it
often endures the contact with the water, and Mr. J. H.
Gurney has a specimen dredged up at Lowestoft. It may
be accepted as a fact that each bird recognizes its own egg,
for Messrs. Theodore Walker and G. Maclachlan marked a
number of birds on the ledges at Barra Head by splashing
red paint over them, and the same individuals were found
at their accustomed post day after day. Mr. Seebohm says
that at Flamborougli, Lowney the veteran cliff-climber is of
opinion that if the egg is taken, the same bird will lay a
second about nine days later, and this agrees with the experience
of Mr. Maclachlan ; but if the second egg is taken the
bird lays no more that season. If undisturbed, the same
birds return year by year to the same ledge, and deposit
their egg in the same spot, but if the eggs are taken the
birds will shift their ground : it may be only to the next
ledge. It is also pretty well established that the same bird
lays a similar egg year after year. Large numbers of eggs
collected at Lundy Island are taken to Bristol, where they
are said to be used for clarifying wine; and at Flamborougli
Mr. Cordeaux was informed that many were sent to Leeds,
the albumen being employed in the preparation of patent
leather. According to some good observers, the male does
not take his share of incubation, nor does he feed the female
when sitting, but perhaps this neglect of his apparent duties
may not be universal.
The young birds, at first covered with down, or bristly hair
rather, from the manner in which it resists saturation with
water, are fed for a time on the rocks by the parent birds with
portions of fish. Mr. Waterton, in his account of his visit to
the rock-bird-breeding localities about Flamborougli Head,
says, “ The men there assured me that when the young