576 ^ock Birds of Britain. 



about the middle of May. Departure. Goes away in the 

 month of August. Remarks. There are three sorts of sea 

 malls (gulls) here ; the first of a grey colour, Hke a goose ; 

 the second considerably less, and of a grey colour; and the 

 third sort white, and less in size than a tame duck, called 

 reddag. 



Gair Fowl, or Great Auk {A'lca impennis Lin.). — Arrival. 

 May 1., without regard to any wind. Breeding. Lays its egg 

 upon the bare rock ; and, if it be taken away, it lays no more 

 for that year. Departure. Goes away about the middle of 

 June. 



Jirma^ or Oyster-Catclier [Hcemdtopus ostrdlegus.). — Arrival. 

 In May. Breeding. No remark. Departure. Goes away in 

 August. Remarks. If it comes the beginning of May, it is a 

 sign of a good summer ; if later, the contrary is observed. 



The inhabitants observe, that, when the April moon goes 

 far into May, the fowls are ten or twelve days later in laying 

 their eggs than they usually are. Every fowl lays an egg 

 three different times, except the gair fowl (great auk) and 

 fulmar, which lay but once. If the first or second egg be 

 taken away, every fowl lays but one other egg that year, ex- 

 cept the sea malls (gulls), and they usually lay the third egg, 

 whether the first or second egg be taken away or not. 



[In V. 415 — 425. there is a communication of much in- 

 terest by Mr. Salmon himself, consisting of " Observations 

 on the Eggs and Birds which were met with in a Three 

 Weeks' Sojourn in the Orkney Islands."] 



[The state of weather must much influence the movement?? 

 of the rock birds. Mr. Macgillivray (in his account of 

 the Outer Hebrides in Cheek's Edin. Journ. of' Nat. and 

 Geograph. Science, i. 249.), in a sketch of a winter tempest 

 witnessed from a headland of the west coast of Harris, has 

 these words : — " No sign of life is to be seen, save when a 

 gull, labouring hard to bear itself up against the blast, hovers 

 overhead, or shoots athwart the gloom like a meteor. Long 

 ranges of giant waves rush in succession towards the shores. 

 The thunder of the shock echoes among the crevices and 

 caves; the spray mounts along the face of the cliffs to an 

 astonishing height; the rocks shake to their summit, and the 

 baffled wave rolls back to meet its advancing successor. If 

 one, at this season, venture, by some slippery path, to peep 

 into the haunts of the cormorant and rock pigeon, he finds 

 them huddled together in melancholy silence. For whole 

 days and nights they are sometimes doomed to feel the gnaw- 



