Among the Guillemots, the female lays only one large egg. They feed on fishes, insects, and crustacea. They principally inhabit northern regions, visiting our shores and other temperate climates when the ice has invaded their summer home. In their migratory journeys they must trust to their wings--which, however, as already observed, are very short. They are consequently not possessed of long powers of flight, and skim the surface of the water, rarely rising much above the surface. Their progress, however, is sharp and rapid, but of short duration. The Guillemots during winter are frequently seen in immense numbers on Rock-all Bank and on the banks of Newfoundland. So little are they alarmed at the approach of a vessel, that should they be directly in her track, they will only dive to save themselves. These banks are several hundred miles from land. The whole race of aquatic birds of which we have spoken, whether Divers, Penguins, Grebes, or Guillemots, are, in these northern regions, a valuable resource, where vegetation almost entirely ceases. The poor people whose lot compels them to live there obtain in their feathers, skin, oil, and eggs, clothing, food, and light during their long and gloomy winter. But to obtain what they truly consider a blessing from heaven, they have to surmount innumerable difficulties, the birds often building their nests in islets almost unapproachable, or on rocks rising perpendicularly out of the water. Slung upon seats hung from the summits of these crags, the courageous islanders suspend themselves, in the breeding season, to gather and make, so to speak, a harvest of the sea-fowls' eggs. Some of these men walk along the rocky coast, furnished with a conical net attached to the end of a pole, which enables them to secure the birds flying around them, much in the same manner as boys catch butterflies in the meadows. But chasing these graceful swimmers at the foot of their rocky retreat is mere trifling; the dramatic and dangerous incidents occur at the summit of the steep, giant cliffs. The intrepid inhabitants of the Feroë Islands, which are situated to the north of Scotland, between Norway and Iceland, in the Atlantic Ocean, proceed as follows in the search after eggs. The fowler begins operations by swarming, as schoolboys call it, up a pole, which carries him to the first projecting ledge of the rocks. This point attained, he throws a knotted rope to his companions, who soon join him on the aërial cliffs. The same manoeuvre is performed, stage by stage, until they reach the summit. But this is nothing; he has now to visit the recesses in which the nests are to be found. [Illustration: Fig. 85.--Catching Birds and gathering Eggs in the Feroë Islands.]