574? Arrival, Breeding, Departure, and 



the different headlands along the coast to this latter subject, 

 as these are the places usually resorted to by these birds. 

 To this end I have drawn up, from Martin's Voyage to St. 

 Kilda, the annexed statements ; and, although I am aware 

 that they may be very imperfect, I am induced, by the re- 

 flection that no other work offers so much information upon 

 the subject proposed, to submit them ; and I hope that they 

 will prove a means of inducing a contribution of much inform- 

 ation, additional, and, where necessary, corrective. 



It will be perceived that the inhabitants of St. Kilda con- 

 sider the state of the wind and weather as having a great in- 

 fluence on the arrival, &c., of some of the birds. 



In relation to the subject generally, 1 may quote as follows, 

 from a letter received, this summer, from a friend at the Isle 

 of Wight: — "The birds never leave the cliffs altogether, 

 but keep coming, through the winter and spring, at short 

 intervals, up to the time of breeding. The first eggs taken 

 this year of the guillemots and razorbills were obtained on 

 May 1.; eggs of the herring gull, on May 4. On May 13., 

 I procured eggs of these in abundance, quite fresh. Puffins 

 and shags sitting, the former having ceased laying." Is it 

 not probable that these short intervals are caused by the state 

 of the weather, which may more or less affect their acquisition 

 of food ? 



Many species that are supposed to inhabit only the sea 

 shore are to be found in other situations : the ring dottrel 

 (Charadrius hiaticula), provincially called the stonehatch, is to 

 be met with abundantly on all the rabbit warrens in the in- 

 terior of this county [Norfolk] during the breeding season, 

 usually making its appearance in the middle of February, and 

 taking its departure in about the end of August. The first 

 appearance of birds of this species, last spring, upon an 

 adjoining warren was on Feb. 16.; they were sitting on 

 March 30. ; and had all taken their departure previously to 

 August 25., to the sea coast, I presume. 



Thetford, Norfolk, Sept. 10. 18 34-. 



Dates of the Arrival, Breeding, and Departure of the Rock 

 Birds at the Island of St. Kilda, isoith some other Facts relative 

 to them, as ascertained by M. Martin, Gent., during a Fisit 

 to that Island, in the Spring of 1697. 



Fulmar [Procelldria glacidlis Lin.). — Arrival. In Novem- 

 ber ; the sure messenger of evil tidings, being always accom- 

 panied with boisterous west winds, great snow, rain, or hail. 

 Breeding. Commonly lays its egg about the 1st, 2d, or 3d 

 day of May. The young ones are hatched in the middle of 



