20 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



to a collector at Saint Pierre, but for the last two years the 

 keeper admits that nothing but Larks and small birds have 

 been got* 



Proceeding to Boulogne, I found that most of the birds 

 in the Museum there had been collected by M. Demarle 

 of Douai, but the rare Capped Petrel bears the name of 

 Lebeau Lonquety as donor. There are local specimens (as 

 indicated by two blue lines upon the ticket) of the Spotted 

 Eagle, Crested Titmouse, King Duck, and Caspian Tern, 

 besides four Purple Waterhens, which may not have been 

 really wild. Only the Eagle and Titmouse are included in 

 the list in Bertrand's History of Boulogne by Demarle, en- 

 titled " Oiseaux observes dans le Boulonnais." 



And here my notes on this journey terminate. Leaving 

 in a steamer at 6.30 for Folkestone I had a quick passage, 

 but did not see many birds worthy of record. I have, how- 

 ever, once seen Fulmar Petrels about midway in the straits. 

 I mistook them at first for Gulls, until as they came nearer, 

 their buoyant flight attracted my closer attention, and I 

 made out what they really were. I have also sometimes 

 seen great flocks of restless Scoter Ducks, particularly in 

 November, 1870, near Ostend, and parties of Puffins and 

 Gannets prowling along in pairs ; and I have known the 

 steamer go so close to a Red-throated Diver as nearly to 

 run it down. 



•* A Wild Duck once flew against Happisburgh lighthouse, in Nor- 

 folk, broke the glass and indented the copper; but this is nothing 

 to a story of what happened at the Lundy Island lighthouse. One 

 frosty night a large flock came full tilt against the lantern, the glass of 

 which was 5/16 of an inch thick, which they immediately broke. 

 Seven of the foremost were killed by the concussion, but the rest flew 

 through the breach, and actually smashed the glass on the other side, 

 leaving nine more of their number slain. The relics of this gallant 

 band passed through in safety over the dead bodies of their com- 

 rades ; and the keeper, as compensation for the smash, netted a haul 

 of eight couple of Wild Ducks. 



