lyiS- MacGini.EV. — Nolcs frojn the Skclligs. 2it 
NOTES FROM THE SKELLICxS. 
BY P. J. MACGINLEY. 
(With ;i Prelatorv Note by the late R. J. Ussher. d.l.. m.k.i.a.)- 
I forward a further communication from Mr. P. J. Mac- 
Ginley, light -keeper on the Great SkelHg, some of whose 
previous observations have appeared on p. 178 of this 
volume. I sent him a copy of the Irish Naturalist for 
June, 1899, which contains some observations by Mr. E. 
M'Carron on the Razorbill. 
R. J. u. 
In Mr. M'Carron's observations on the Razorbill, i it is 
stated that " young Razorbills leave their nesting-places 
in the night-time. . . . The young ones are jostled 
all the way down to the sea by the old ones. If the young 
one rests too long, the old one shoves it on, and on it goes, 
rolling and tumbling and falling sometimes down steep 
cliffs." 
I must say that I have never witnessed the young Razor- 
bills topple down the cliff when they are being taken aw^ay. 
At an altitude of close on 600 feet it would be a cruel pro- 
cess. There are Razorbills nesting here close on 600 feet 
high where the cliff is by no means overhanging, and where 
if the young bird was once started off the ledge and not 
assisted by the parent clear of the cliff — the first fall — 
there it w^ould remain in a crevice, or get killed on the 
serrated edges of the rocks. As I have said previously 
(p. 178 supra), I have watched them evening after evening 
bring their young away, and after sunset, just as night falls 
they leave. Directly over our landing where I spend my 
evenings fishing there are numbers of these birds, so there 
is no doubt about the time of the departure of the young. 
One could not help but see them leave, one's attention 
being always drawn by the old birds continually screaming 
in the flight down wdth the young one and for some time 
^ Irish Natityalist, vol. viii., 1899, p. 13; 
