72 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



but soon took wino- on gaining any little elevation. 

 In skinning one of them I found the joint of the 

 thigh-bones had very little flexibility in it, and the 

 thigh-bones were difficult to move from their hori- 

 zontal position, from which it apf)ears as if it would 

 require some effort to move the legs far enough 

 forward to enable the bird to walk, though perfectly 

 ada]Dted for paddling along the surface of the water. 

 The thighs, too, had extremely little muscle on them. 

 On a second visit to the same islands we were more 

 fortunate. I again tried a place on the larger island 

 where I had been unsuccessful before, and had 

 scarcely got to the cairn where we had landed on 

 our first visit when I heard a peculiar note quite 

 new to me. It came from under the stones, and may 

 be described by the words "ti-tee-tik, ti-tee-tik," 

 repeated time after time. We set to work in real 

 earnest, and after half-an-hour's moving of stones, 

 ran the noise down in the shape of a Petrel, which 

 w^e caught and lot go again. The egg ^vas unfor- 

 tunately broken. There were more birds under the 

 stones ; but as it took so long to get at them we 

 determined again to try the holes on the smaller 

 islands. Here we were again successful, getting seven- 

 teen eggs in all, and the birds mostly on each. Some 

 of the holes ^vere too deep for me to reach to the bot- 

 tom. The grass that grew over the entrance to the 

 holes was little disturbed by the birds ; but by put- 

 ting one's nose down one could soon tell whether 

 the bird was at home or not — as even while the 

 eggs were quite fresh, and consequently the bird 

 could not have been long there, their peculiar odour 

 was very perceptible. 



Fam. Ale idee. 



Razorbill (AIca toi-cla). A common summer 

 visitant, though not breeding in anything like the 

 abundance of the Guillemot. A few birds remain 

 through the winter, and the last day I could get out 



