The few eggs seen were doubtless laid by birds which had been robbed earlier in the season, but young were found in every stage, from the newly hatched downy chick,[90] who sat on his narrow ledge vigorously screeching for food, to others half grown and with the natal down almost entirely replaced by the first winter plumage. The parents were still in attendance on the oldest birds, and no young were seen in the water.
91. Kittiwakes and young on nest. From the crate. × 2. An enlarged detail of No. 85.
Razorbills, perhaps because the Rock contained comparatively few of the sheltered nooks they require for nesting sites, were less abundant than Murres. Their downy young were much lighter in color than the young of the Murres, and their high squealing whistle could easily be distinguished from the screech of the young Murres. Of two specimens which had nearly completed the acquisition of their winter plumage, one had the white line from the eye to the bill so characteristic of the adult fully developed, while in the other it was wholly wanting—a variability in marking which suggests that the white stripe of the Ringed Murre is a similar individual peculiarity.
Next to the Murres the Kittiwakes are probably the most numerous birds on the Rock. Doubtless for the reason that they select the less accessible ledges where their eggs can not be so readily taken, their young were more advanced than those of any other of the birds breeding here. Their nests, rather bulky structures of seaweed, which often projected well over the edge of the ledge on which they were built, contained only young with their parents, one or two birds constituting a brood.[91]
92. Entrance to Puffin’s burrow.
Kittiwakes were never observed perching on the upper ledges or rim of the Rock in the situations commonly selected by Murres, Razorbills, and Puffins. The last-named species, in fact, was never seen resting far from the top of the Rock, and its nests were placed in burrows excavated on the summit of the Rock, at the west end. Occasionally advantage was taken of an opening beneath a ledge, but generally the bird excavated a hole,[92] about four inches in diameter and three or four feet in length, at the end of which we found the nest of grasses and feathers, with its single elliptical white egg[93] and sitting bird, or a sooty, down-covered nestling.[94]
93. Puffin’s nest and egg at the end of excavated burrow.