NOTES 283 



thick chocolate sauce, and 6 or 7 inches deep in some crevices 

 between the smaller rocks. Then we noticed any number of dead 

 birds lying along high-water mark, but did not then see any living 

 ones. The same evening when the tide was in we went down 

 again, and soon saw three Guillemots, crouching on a little rock, 

 brown from top to toe and simply caked in oil. Then we noticed 

 all along the rocks, just washed up by the tide, quantities of little 

 erect figures; the whole place was dotted with them, some trying 

 to dry themselves with their wings stretched out, but most of them 

 standing quite still and dazed, some of them even allowing them- 

 selves to be caught. Those we caught were dark brown all over, 

 and the oil was so thick we could hardly separate one wing-feather 

 from another. Farther on we came on a group of Eider, one of 

 which seemed to have fallen a victim to the oil, as she lay on the 

 rocks looking sick and miserable beyond words. We caught the 

 wretched creature and carried her to a clean pool, hoping the 

 water might revive her, but she was dead the next day. We also 

 found a poor little Eider duckling lying dead in a pool, and since 

 then all the families of ducklings have disappeared ; some may have 

 escaped to cleaner bits of coast, but probably most of them were 

 killed by the effects of the oil. The living birds gradually 

 disappeared, and now, nearly a month since the oil was first seen, 

 the beach and rocks are practically deserted, except for the 

 scavengers, who are having the feast of their lives. — Magdalen 

 Erskine, Cambo. 



I think it may be interesting to record the mortality that has 

 taken place lately among the sea-birds at the Isle of May. About 

 1 6th June I noticed a few Guillemots sitting on the rocks at the 

 water's edge ; they were in a very dirty condition, stained dark 

 brown, and practically helpless. They could not fly nor even swim 

 properly. I did not know the cause of it until a few days later, 

 when large sheets of oil came into the island and all the creeks on 

 the east side were full of it. The Guillemots were sitting in dozens 

 for a week or more after, anywhere that they could get out of the 

 sea ; some of them had an awful struggle to get out. A great lot 

 of them died, also a few Razorbills and Puffins and a good many 

 Eider. I saw two young broods of Eider about the middle of June, 

 but have seen none since, and I fear there won't be many young 

 ducks this year. I found a Guillemot's egg in a Herring Gull's 

 nest this spring, the Gull sat on it and two of her own eggs for over 

 three weeks, but it did not hatch, though her own eggs hatched 

 all right. — Sim Baigrie, Isle of May Lighthouse. 



With reference to Lady Erskine's and Mr Baigrie's notes on 



