Much of that loud, wild screaming which resounds among the cliffs, and
which sometimes rises shrill and hoarse, even above the wildest roar of
the sea, is made by some of those birds which look like the diver, and
which can also both swim and dive exceedingly well. The common guillemot
is commonly called the foolish guillemot, or foolish Willie, or wild
Willie; though why it should be deemed inferior to other sea-birds in
sense is not very apparent, as it seems to surpass many of them in this
respect. It may be that when on shore the bird has an awkward
appearance, as the legs are placed so far back beneath the body that they
walk badly, and their wings are so short and narrow that they can
scarcely flutter. Let our bird, however, but get upon the face of the
waters, and we shall see it swim with grace and ease, while the very
position of its legs, which renders it a bad walker, is suited to
facilitate its diving. It dives very low, and the wings aid its progress
as it rises to the surface when some tempting fish, or marine insect,
induces it to urge onwards with great rapidity. It is by means of these
short wings, too, that the guillemots clear the projecting ledges of
rocks and cliffs, and jump from point to point, till they reach those
high, and to us inaccessible, spots where they often build. Its single
egg is placed on the bare rock. The guillemot visits South Stack about
the month of April, and by the month of September, both old and young,
leave the rocks, and make their dwellings, both by night and by day, on
that wide world of waters for which they are so admirably fitted.
Amidst the flashing and feathery foam
The common guillemot finds a home;
A home, if such a place can be
For her who lives on the wide, wide sea.
The migratory movement of birds may be regarded as one of the most
wonderful impulses possessed by animals, and it supplies an apt
illustration of the Prophet’s view, when he reproached the chosen nation
of God for their neglect of appointed duty. “Yea, the stork in the
heaven knoweth her appointed time; and the turtle, and the crane, and the
swallow, observe the time of their coming: but my people know not the
judgment of the Lord.”—_Jer._ viii. 7.