294 Wim> Birds and their Haunts 



CONCLUSION. 



I ask no apologies for, what some might call, an 

 intrusion into this territory, seeing that I spent 

 many years in ascertaining the why and wherefore 

 of bird life on our wild and rocky coast, which teems with 

 interest at all times very dear to the true student of nature 

 and sportsman. 



From remote times, aye, so far back as the time of the 

 gentle S. Cuthbert, the Fames have been the recognised 

 rendezvous of myriads of the winged tribes, for it is 

 recorded that the saint could command the gulls and 

 rooks from attacking the scanty corn crops which he 

 grew, in the meagre fallow portions of the bigger or House 

 Island, where he erected his small primitive cell in which 

 to live the life of a recluse. 



I therefore present these pages with the hope that 

 those who — and they are legion — annually visit this 

 marvellous haunt of bird-life in the breeding season — 

 May to end of July — will be aided in the work of observa- 

 tion and research towards perfecting their accumulated 

 knowledge of their delightful friends and companions, 

 the birds. 



I have visited many bird haunts in the British Isles, 

 but I have never seen any one nesting place to be com- 

 pared with the rocky islets of the Fame group. Here 

 you have a veritable sanctuary, seabound and secure from 

 invaders, and even in summer the swell of the ocean 

 about here is so strong, that for days no fishermen will 

 attempt to effect a landing. When I first visited these 

 islands in 1907, I was so impressed that I exclaimed, 

 ' ' Here we have what a true naturalist would call an ideal 

 home for the east coast avi-fauna, islands, entombed 

 by their own fastnesses, here birds may incubate and 

 rear their young under the best conditions, and pro- 

 tection in the bargain." It is indeed no wonder that 

 increases in the more important species are annually re- 

 ported. There is an enemy and one to be reckoned with; 



