ON VISITS PAID TO THE ISLAND OF N. RONA 213 



I found several Petrel haunts, but those I pulled out 

 were all Storm Petrels. As they nest in the same places as 

 the Fulmars it is somewhat difficult to detect them, and as I am 

 still less able to discriminate between the odours of a Fork- 

 tailed Petrel and the Storm Petrel I had to abandon the 

 search for the former. 



Numbers of Eider Ducks frequented the bays, and Rock 

 Pipits were numerous, as also Oystercatchers. 



The Fulmars are unpleasant people to deal with at close 

 quarters. The adults allow one to approach within 4 or 5 

 feet before leaving the nest, and the young are able to squirt 

 the oil a distance of 2 to 3 feet out of their mouths. When the 

 supply of oil is exhausted they disgorge the contents of their 

 stomachs, after which they may be handled with impunity, but 

 after the last operation one ceases to desire to interfere with 

 them. They seem loath to leave the nest long after the 

 condition of their plumage would lead one to suppose that 

 they could fly, and I confess that having seen the capture of 

 the young Fulmars on St. Kilda by the cliff climbers, I feel 

 less sympathy for them than I did when I had only read 

 about it. They are so intensely stupid, sitting still to have 

 their necks wrung, that I feel sure that Providence must have 

 designed them to be caught in order to limit the surplus 

 population of a bird which can have few other enemies. 

 The manner of their death is rapid and merciful, and if the 

 young Fulmar has cause for complaint it can only be that of 

 thousands of other young creatures in the world, " Since I 

 am so quickly done for, I wonder what I was begun for ? " 



I set my mouse-traps for several hours, but caught 

 nothing. It is strange that it pays any one to keep sheep on 

 the island. I saw a great deal of fresh mutton lying about, 

 as also carcases in every stage of decay, and there can be but 

 few months in the year when the grass affords them a diet 

 to grow fat on. The few that are there are extremely 

 wild. 



At the time of my second visit in August, owing to 

 there being rather more swell than on the previous occasion, 

 an easier landing was effected by rowing to the extreme end 

 of the cave. From here there is a curious gap sloping up 

 from the sea to the grass-covered surface above. The 



