NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF ST. KILDA 151 



is bare and helpless, but it soon grows a crop of down. 

 Both parents feed it very frequently, visiting it very often 

 daily. Each time they bring with them three or four small 

 fish each held in the bill by the head. The young are 

 generally very fat, but some seasons when food seems to be 

 scarcer not so much so. It is much relished by the natives. 

 As soon as it is quite fledged, which, if the nest has not been 

 robbed, will be about the end of July, they leave the island. 

 It is by far the most numerous of all the birds which 

 frequent these islands. There is not a suitable spot any- 

 where which does not swarm with them. Everywhere you 

 see them in thousands, while at the same time the air is full 

 of them coming and going. I estimate that there cannot 

 be fewer of them than three millions. When they arrive 

 they are in fair condition, but, contrary to what is true of 

 most other birds, they get fatter and fatter during the time 

 of incubating. Afterwards, however, they fall off in condition. 

 Naturally one would suppose that this was due to their 

 parental duties. But this cannot be the only reason, for the 

 large number of birds of the species which do not breed 

 exhibit the same tendency, and what is still more strange 

 is, that these idle birds do not improve in condition during 

 the summer season to the same extent as the breeding birds 

 do. Selfishness does not pay. The number of birds and 

 eggs of this species taken during a season is incredible. 

 Men and women, boys, girls, and dogs pursue them in- 

 cessantly. The dogs show which holes are occupied, when 

 they are in general very easily got at. A very large number 

 are caught in a snare which is only used for catching puffins. 

 It consists of about a fathom of stout cord to which hair 

 nooses, about nine inches long, are fastened at intervals of 

 three or four inches. This is stretched out on any boulder 

 or ledge which the birds are at the time frequenting, and 

 fastened at the ends. The nooses along the sides are then 

 carefully opened out to a diameter of about an inch and a 

 half. The birds which had been disturbed are soon back 

 again, and being restless little fellows it is not long before 

 some of them have got their feet entangled in the nooses. 

 Three or four are generally caught thus before the snare 

 has to be reset. Sometimes very many more are caught, for 



