Some of the Birds of Lamb ay Island. 115 



its land birds : the Stonechat, Wheatear, Meadow Pipit, Linnet, 

 and Kestrel all make it their home; and the Peregrine Falcon, 

 too, sometimes nests there. 



The greater part of the coast-line is rocky and precipitous, 

 and its crags and ledges are mostly inaccessible to ordinary 

 climbers. It is the rock-breeding sea birds — the Kittiwake, 

 Guillemot, Razorbill, the two Cormorants, and some other 

 species, such as the Puffin and Manx Shearwater, that make 

 the island interesting to ornithologists. 



The Puffins are much the most numerous of the birds found 

 there. Their curious appearance, when one first comes up to 

 rows or groups of them, invariably attracts attention. They 

 stand almost upright; their black-coated backs, large white 

 fronts, and their solemn, silent, vigilant demeanour seem to 

 combine in giving them a quaint, odd-looking, unbirdlike 

 aspect. Some of them stand for hours at a time on the grassy 

 herbage-covered slopes, which stretch upwards above the 

 cliffs. Probably they station themselves near the mouths of 

 the burrows where they nested. The slopes above the cliffs, 

 on the eastern side of the island, are full of rabbit burrows ; 

 but the Puffins are in possession, and the rabbits have gone to 

 other parts of the island. These curious birds watch you in 

 their odd way, without seeming afraid, till you get within a 

 very few yards of them, when, one after another, they quickly 

 fly off in a downward direction, sometimes to circle about in 

 mid air, and sometimes to alight on the water Vjelow. 



While hundreds, if not thousands, of Puffins were to be seen 

 standing in small companies on the sides of the hills, many 

 others were resting on the water, and immense numbers were, 

 at the same time, to be seen flying round and round on all 

 sides. The incessant and rapid beating of the wings gives a 

 quick direct flight that reminds one of that of the Red Grouse. 

 Businesslike as it looks, however, there seems to be no pur- 

 pose in it beyond the pleasure of exercise. After a good deal 

 of it has been gone through, the birds settle down among their 

 fellows, and stand solemnly looking out to sea for hours. 



The young Puffins are easily distinguished from the adults, 

 in June, not being quite fully grown, and being less proficient 

 on the wing. I watched numbers of them flying round and 

 round over nearly the same track-, for a length of time. As 

 they circled past, one could see the use they made of their 

 bright orange webbed feet, one stretched out at each side of 

 the tail, to assist the latter organ in steering their course. 

 They appeared not always able to stop and alight where they 

 seemed to intend to, like the old birds. Some came circling 

 round towards resting places, where groups of others were 

 standing, and lowered their feet to alight, without being able 

 to do so, owing, apparently, to the speed at which they were 



The noise at one of these bird colonies is virtually ceaseless 



