78 



WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



confess frankly that I felt afraid to go. My brother 

 strongly advised me to stay where I was, but this 

 was impossible. I have many times been accused 

 of foolhardiness, hut never once of cowardice ; and 

 I could not bear to thiidv that I lacked the necessary 

 courage, so promptly leapt ashore to prove to my 

 own satisfaction that I didn't. 



We trudged up the steep cliff, clambering from 

 ledge to ledge and from boulder 

 to boulder, until we came to 

 where the turf clothes the island. 

 Here the Puffins breed in im- 

 mense numbers, and the clouds 

 of birds that swept past us 

 made a sound like a whirlwind 

 whipping a great bed of dead 

 rushes. As the Forked-Tailed 

 Petrels also nest regularly at 

 the same spot, we began to 

 grope aljout in the burrows for 

 their eggs. I had not investi- 

 gated more than two or three 

 holes before I felt a peculiar 

 PUFFIN NOOSE stlugiug paiu, and precipitately 



withdrew my hand, streaming 

 with blood. I had invaded the nest of a Tannny 

 Norrie by mistake, and the owner being at home 

 naturally objected, and administered with great 

 promptitude what she no doubt regarded as a well- 

 deserved punishment for the intrusion. I used to 

 be a little sce[)tical about the stories of Puffins 

 evicting rabbits from their l)urr()ws, but must con- 

 fess that the back of my unbelief was In'oken tluit 

 day on Borrera. 



The num found several Forked-Tailed Petrels in 

 their nesting-burrows, and wlicn they were taken 



