Some of the Birds of Lambay Island. 117 



Kittiwakes choose .spots such as might be thought to afford 

 no site at all for a nest ; and the Pufi&ns, unlike their neigh- 

 bours in this, as in other respects, nest in old rabbit burrows. 



A company of Herring Gulls were sadly disturbed one night. 

 I had gone to the headland at the north-east of the island, in 

 order to watch, if possible, the Manx Shearwaters, which I 

 understand nest there. Between nine and ten o'clock I heard 

 the hoarse cackling cries of Herring Gulls above me, and saw 

 two or three dozen of them sailing about overhead. There 

 were several of their disused nests in the grassy hollows. 

 They were evidentl}^ wanting to settle down for the night at 

 heir roosting place, and so I was particularly unwelcome just 



^n. They continued their cries, and remained on the wing 

 1 more than an hour, and then, as the darkness slowly be- 

 came more visible, and everything else less and less distinct, 

 they gradually became quieter, and settled down at a little 

 distance. But evidently they were watchful and on the 

 alert, for as long as I remained — up to about one o'clock — 

 their alarm notes were occasionally to be heard. 



The part of the night I spent at the haunt of the Shear- 

 waters was not light enough to allow of the birds being seen, 

 except occasionally, when one happened to fly quite near me ; 

 and then all that could be discernedwasa dark object, which was 

 indistinguishable from a swift or a bat, and gone in a moment. 

 No trace of the birds was to be found while any glimmer of 

 light lasted; nor did I discover any of their nesting places. 

 But they began to make themselves heard when signs of day 

 had disappeared. Apparently from close to the water down 

 below me, there came the quickly repeated curious cry of four 

 syllables, which told of the birds of which I was in search. 

 This was about twenty minutes to eleven. More similar notes 

 soon followed, and for some time the number of birds coming 

 out of their holes, judging from the notes heard, was con- 

 stantly increasing. By midnight it sounded as though there 

 might be three or four dozen birds all uttering their notes 

 together. For some time, at first, the}^ kept down near the 

 water, or at any rate their notes only came from there; but 

 after a while they took to flying higher, and some of them 

 passed in all directions over the island. The greater number 

 kept about the rocky headland, but as I made my way back to 

 the other end of the island, their cries, though fewer and fewer 

 the further one got from their haunt, were to be heard all 

 the way. 



Of all the odd notes of birds the curious cry of the Manx 

 Shearwater is far from being the least peculiar. It is unlike 

 that of any other bird I know. At night, when a number are 

 heard together, it is almost of the kind to bring up, in some 

 minds, ideas of things weird or uncanny; and it seems to 

 suggest a possible explanation for the belief in supernatural 

 beings, which existed in former generations. 



