38 THE BIRDS OF IONA AND MULL. 



The Manx Shearwater (JPujfftnus anglorum) is common to 

 these islands, and appears in summer. At that time we frequently 

 see them skimming rapidly over the crests of the waves with a 

 rapid, swallow-like flight. They are rarely seen to alight, and 

 are so swift and restless, and only to be met with on the open sea, 

 that it is not easy to procure many specimens. On the 12 th of 

 May last year, however, a very calm day, as I was going to Staffa 

 with a party in a boat, we approached a number of very large 

 flocks of Shearwaters swimming upon the water. 1 They were very 

 tame, and I procured a considerable number. At their first 

 appearance I mistook them for the Common Guillemots which at 

 that time of the year " stud the seas." By their arriving here in 

 such large flocks at the time of migration, and their being seen 

 here during the whole summer, it is natural to suppose that they 

 breed in the neighbourhood, and in fact I got an egg at Staffa 

 which, I have no doubt, is one of theirs. It was in a hole in a 

 grassy bank upon the summit of one of the basaltic cliffs over- 

 hanging the sea. It was past the breeding-time, and a few 

 fragments of shells of eggs that had been hatched were strewed 

 upon the ground and attracted our attention, and we discovered 

 one egg (an addled one) by itself in a hole. It was about the 

 size of a Pigeon's egg, white, and a perfect oval, being equally blunt 

 at both ends. The shell had the dead, unpolished appearance 

 which characterises the egg of the Puffin, Stormy Petrel, and 



i Manx Shearwaters frequently alight upon the water in the vicinity of their 

 principal breeding haunts and favourite fishing grounds. At times hundreds — 

 and we believe we have witnessed thousands — may be seen to congregate upon 

 the surface of a calm sea. We have never, however, witnessed such gatherings 

 in the vicinity of Iona, but repeatedly in the narrow seas around their principal 

 breeding stations. — Ed. 



