TIIK I'll-f'I.N. GOl 



Many of these birds resort to the Faroe Islands, selecting such as are covered with a 

 stratum of vegetable mould ; and here they dig their own burrows, from there not being 

 an}' rabbits to dispossess upon the particular islands they frequent. Thej^ commence 

 this operation about the first week in May, and the hole is generally excavated to the 

 depth of three feet, often in a curving direction, and occasionally with two entrances. 

 When engaged in digging, which is principally performed by the males, they are some- 

 times so intent on their work as to admit of their being taken by hand ; and the same 

 may also be done during incubation. " At this period," says Selb}^ " I have frequently 

 obtained specimens by thrusting my arm into the burrow, though at the risk of re- 

 cei-sang a severe bite from the powerful and sharp-edged bill of the old bird. At the 

 further end of this hole the single egg is deposited, which in size nearly equals that of a 

 pullet. The length two inches three lines, by an inch and seven lines in breadth. Its 

 colour when hrst laid is white, sometimes spotted with pale cinereous, but it soon becomes 

 soiled and dirty from its immediate contact with the earth, no materials being collected 

 for a nest at the end of the burrow. The young are hatched after a month's incubation, 

 and are then covered with a long blackish down above, which gradually gives place to 

 the feathered plumage, so that, at the end of a month or five weeks, they are able to quit 

 the burrow, and follow their parents to the open sea." 



Mr. James Wilson, when at St. Kilda, says : — " The houses, or at. least the front ones, 

 form a pretty regular line. As stonas are plenty in the island, the walls are of great 

 thickness, or rather each wall is double, there being built, first of all, a couple of very 

 strong dykes within a foot or two of each other, and then the intermediate space is 

 crammed with earth, which fills up all the interstices, and produces a comfortable 

 dwelling. 



" The furniture, as may be supposed, is scanty enough, though much improved of late 

 years. Each house has one or more bedsteads, with a small supply of blankets, a little 

 dresser, a seat or two with wooden legs, and a few kitchen articles ; and almost every 

 dwelling has also a small four-paned window, which, however, admits but an inefficient 

 light, owing to the great thickness of the walls. None that we noticed had a chimney, 

 the smoke hnding its devious way as it best can from the floor to a hole in the roof. 

 This is trying to the eyes of strangers. 



" We rested for a time in one of the houses, inhabited by a widow woman and her 

 daughter, and foimd that the former had been with her dog across the hill that morning 

 to collect her food, vvhich, at certain seasons, is really scattered before them like manna 

 in the wilderness. They have ' flesh rained upon them as dust, and featherpd fowls like 

 the sand of the sea.' 



" Their chief sustenance at this time consisted of the small sea-fowl — the puffin. The 

 widow had snared about a score, and having already eaten afeio for breakfast, was now 

 emploj-ed in boiling a corresponding number for dinner. We saw their little fat bodies 

 turning round and round in the pot, and would have tasted one as soon as it was ready, 

 had we not at the time been less carnivorously inclined than usual. 



" These birds are caught by stretching, a piece of cord along the stonj' places where 

 they chiefly congregate. To this cord are fastened, at certain intervals, numerous hair 

 nooses ; and from time to time, when the countless puffins are paddling upon the surface, 

 in go their little web feet, they get noosed round the ankle, and no sooner begin to 

 flap and flutter, than down rushes a ruthless widow woman, and twists their necks. 

 Her dog had acted a useful part, not only in driving more distant or otherwise 

 inaccessible birds from their roosting-places towards the nooses, but by catching them 

 dexterously in its mouth." 



In Iceland these birds are caught by means of a hook fastened to the end of a stick ; 

 and, what is singular, when one is dragged out, his companions take hold of him, and 



