244 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



as I sat upon tlio beacli, witliin a few minutes of 

 midniolit. 



Stormy and Forked-tailed Petrels sleep on the 

 sea when not engaged in breeding operations ; but 

 whether they take their rest by day or night, it is 

 impossible to say. It would appear, however, from 

 their habits during the nesting season, that they 

 are diuinud sh^epers, for they are never to be seen 

 on land during the daytime. I have spent days 

 together on and near ground occupied l)y colonies, 

 but never yet saw a member of either species, 

 excepting when it was taken by force from its nest- 

 ing burrow. They come forth at night and fcc^d 

 their young during the hours of darkness. 



At St. Kilda the breeding-holes of the Forked- 

 tailed species are mixed up with those of thousands 

 upon thousands of Puffins ; and how a bird, in the 

 dark, can distinguish its own burrow amongst such 

 a bewildering crowd of others exactly like it, so 

 far as human discernment can make out, is to me 

 a mystery. 



Owls sleej) by day in thick holly bushes, in 

 hollow trees, holes in rocks, amongst ivy growing 

 round trees, in old ruins, and amongst deep heather 

 and furze. Tlie Barn Owl figuring in our illus- 

 tration was photographed by means of a nuignesiuui 

 flashlight in an old barn in Plssex. 



Tliese Ijirds are popularly sup})ose(l to conui 

 fortli only at nighttime, but such is by no means 

 the case. When a Barn Owl lias a family of 

 young ones to feed she may often 1)0 schmi on a, 

 dull afternoon assiduoush' (piartei-ing a hedg(M'ow 

 in search of j)re\- long before; dark. A year or 

 two ago, whilst staying with some friends near 

 Leatherhead, 1 was standing under an apple tree 

 in an old orcluird about live oVlock one cloudy 



