19^ Our Bird Friends. 



cat should be seen stealthily approaching a favourite 

 roost shared by himself and other birds of different 

 spscies about bedtime, he rings out his notes as loud 

 and fost as a fire alarm, and every feathered neighbour 

 is instantly on the alert. 



The Blackbird is, in short, a capital sentinel, and 

 many gamekeepers encourage its presence in tlir 

 fields where they have their Pheasant coops because 

 of the timely warning it gives of the a])proach ot 

 vermin. 



The inhal»itants of the far-fmied island of St. 

 Kilda, situated some forty or titty miles north-west 

 of the Outer Hebrides, say that the great Hocks of 

 Gannets visiting the rock stacks round their isolated 

 home every summer to breed have a sentinel to 

 keep Avatch at night wbilst the otlici- iiicmbrrs of 

 the species slumber. These hardy inhabitants of St. 

 Kilda, with whom my brother and I stayed for a 

 while on one occasion, have to depend for a great 

 part of their living upon the sea-fowl tlial visit 

 their lonely home to breed, and in consecpience are 

 obliged to steal upon the sleeping Gannets and 

 capture a number of them in the dead of the night. 

 If the sentinel bird hears them elind)ing up the 

 face of the rocks, which are truly awful in their 

 steepness and height, he cries out to his friends, 

 Bcevo ! which means Beware. The fowlers then 

 remain quite still, with their caps drawn over their 

 eyes and their faces pressed against tliat of tlie 

 crag they are climbing. Should the sentinel con- 



