CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 20I 



also used, as they return to the same site year after 

 year. The nest itself is a very coarse structure of 

 rough twigs and grass, and, if near the sea, lined with 

 seaweed. It emits a horribly fetid smell, which I 

 am not likely to forget, as the odour of the birds I 

 took nearly made me sick. The eggs are of a most 

 peculiar shape, being very long and narrow, of a 

 chalky white appearance, with a transparent sort of 

 green tinge if held up to the light. 



Now to the circumstances — my headquarters were 

 still at the Salen Hotel, Mull, so one day, hiring a 

 doofcart, I drove to the village of Gribun, which is 

 about two miles from the Gribun Rocks, where I 

 negotiated one of my Peregrine Falcons. 



On arrival, I hired a good sized sea-boat with a 

 couple of trusty boatmen, and sailed down the coast 

 as described under the Razor Bill (Case 42). Some 

 distance down this coast I came to a very precipi- 

 tous cliff, quite sheer in fact, of chalky composition. 

 On a ledore of some 200 feet or so in heigrht I 

 noticed a colony of these Cormorants who evidently 

 were nesting there. The distance was too orreat to 

 try my little sixteen bore gun on them, but I had an 

 eight bore with me, so getting out of my boat — as 

 there was too much swell on the sea to shoot with 

 any degree of accuracy — I landed on a volcanic 

 looking sort of rock, and steadying myself against it 

 I fired. The result was absurd — there was no 

 damage done — the birds, in fact, hardly seemed to 

 be aware of any shot, so, making up my mind that 

 any further attempt from that position with such a 



