POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



139 



different specimens in a most extraordinary 

 manner." Nearly every shelf or projection 

 cf the rock, both in the Pinnacles and in 

 the rest of the islands, is occupied by the 

 kittiwakes, whose well-built nests, with their 

 spotted, brown eggs or speckled, downy 

 young, can be easily seen from the tops of 

 the cliffs. " Walking about," says a writer 

 in the Saturday Review, " it is hard to avoid 

 treading on the gulls' eggs, which are 

 placed in rather loosely made nests among 

 the coarse herbage or on the rocks them- 

 selves. As the center of the island is 

 reached it is easy to see the nests of the 

 cormorants, which are large, slovenly con- 

 structions, composed principally of sea-weed, 

 mixed with pieces of drift-wood, corks off 

 fishing-nets, and other such flotsam and 

 jetsam, the whole covered and made filthy 

 both to sight and smell by the droppings of 

 the birds and remnants of fish. The eggs, 

 which are bluish-green in ground color, are 

 covered with a white, calcareous matter ; 

 but, except where freshly laid, look as dirty 

 as the nests. ... In a comfortable hol- 

 low between two rocks we find the nest of 

 an eider duck, and then, within a very short 

 distance, one or two more. These nests are 

 most cozily lined with the brown down 

 which the bird picks from her breast from 

 time to time during the process of incuba- 

 tion, and in which the large, greenish-gray 

 eggs, from five to eight in number, are al- 

 most covered." These birds are very tame 

 and approachable. The light and peaty soil 

 of the interior of the island is full of bur- 

 rows, which are divided between numberless 

 puffins and a few rabbits. " Many of the puf- 

 fins, curious, pompous-looking little fellows, 

 with large, brightly colored bills, may be seen 

 sitting about on the rocks or flying and 

 swimming round the island, while their part- 

 ners are below the ground, sitting each on 

 the solitary egg which she has laid at the 

 end of the burrow. In the campion-covered 

 centers of the islands the terns are num- 

 berless, and the beach down to high-water 

 mark is covered with their eggs, so that 

 very great care has to be used in walking 

 to avoid treading on them. They are also 

 to be found in large numbers among the 

 sea campion ; many are laid on the shingle 

 with little if any pretense of a nest ; while 

 others have slight nests, made of bents and 



pieces of sea-weed. The list of birds breed- 

 ing on the Fame Islands includes twelve 

 species, and others may be occasionally seen 

 there as visitors. The birds and eggs, which 

 had been exposed to danger of destruction 

 and extermination, have had their existence 

 more and more secured under the wild 

 birds' protection acts passed since 1869 ; 

 and in 1888 an association of gentlemen in- 

 terested in ornithology was formed, which 

 has secured a lease of the islands, keeps in- 

 truders off, and takes care of the birds. 



Wild Life in the Snow. — Snow, remarks 

 in the London Spectator an observer of 

 wild life, generally catches our animals un- 

 prepared, and they are put to all kinds of 

 shifts to find food and escape their enemies. 

 The more open and exposed the districts, 

 the greater their difficulties. Where there 

 are thick woods and hedgerows, and, above 

 all, running water, birds and beasts alike 

 can find dry earth in which to peck and 

 scratch, or green things to nibble and water 

 to drink. But on the great chalk downs a 

 snow-storm seems to drive from the open 

 country every living creature that dares 

 to move at all. For the first day after a 

 heavy fall, the hares, which allow the snow 

 to cover them, all but a tiny hole made by 

 their warm breath, do not stir ; only toward 

 noon, if the sun shines out, they make a 

 small opening to face its beams, and per- 

 haps another in the afternoon, at a differ- 

 ent angle to the surface, to catch the last 

 slanting rays. But soon hunger forces the 

 hares to leave their snug snow-house, and 

 they find their way to the cabbage or tur- 

 nip gardens. Squirrels, which are often sup- 

 posed to hibernate, retire to their nests 

 only in very severe and prolonged frosts. 

 A slight fall of snow only amuses them, and 

 they will come down from their trees and 

 scamper over the powdery heaps with im- 

 mense enjoyment ; what they do not like is 

 the snow on the leaves and branches, which 

 falls in showers as they jump from tree to 

 tree, and betrays them to their enemies, the 

 country boys. During a mild winter they 

 even neglect to make a central store of nuts, 

 and, instead of depositing them in big hoards 

 near the nest, just drop them into any con- 

 venient hole they know of near. Rabbits 

 also seem to enjoy the snow at first. They 



