296 OUR RARER BIRDS 



the boat; and the face of the cliff seems crumbling away, as 

 the birds in big white masses sweep from the towering heights 

 towards the water. Little noise accompanies this extra- 

 ordinary scene ; but the silence only increases its weird im- 

 pressiveness, and the rushing of countless wings seems like 

 the remote hum of a mighty wind or the roar of a distant 

 cataract. The lofty peaks of these lonely ocean rocks are 

 vignetted in the surging clouds of birds that seem as if they 

 w^ould descend and overwhelm us. Kever in all my life did 

 I feel so utterly insignificant as when below that vast and 

 overpowering throng of birds ! It is interesting to notice how 

 the Fulmars keep to themselves, but tens of thousands of 

 Puffins share the cliffs wdth them ; and lower down, nearer the 

 water, Kittiwakes cluster on every coign of vantage ; whilst 

 Guillemots and Eazorbills in endless rows stand sentinel-like 

 on every convenient ledge. It seems as if all the birds of the 

 Atlantic were gathered here for their summer duties, and no " 

 place in the world can show more vivid pictures of bird-life 

 than those wiiich can be witnessed on these rugged peaks 

 and stacks and cliffs 1 



Scattered thinly here and there amongst the cloud of 

 fluttering Fulmars, the observer will sometimes notice one or 

 two birds much darker in colour than the rest. If he studies 

 the birds more closely he will also discover that in both this light 

 and dark race of Fulmar a large and small form occurs. Some 

 naturalists assert that these darker birds are the young — a 

 statement which I from personal observation most flatly 

 deny ; and that the large and small forms only represent the 

 local variation in size to which each and every species is 

 subject more or less. This again is wrong, as I have obtained 

 several of the eggs of this small form of Fulmar, which is 

 well known to the St. Kildans, who, like the excellent field 

 naturalists they are, were very careful to inform me of the 

 fact. It is not much to the credit of British ornithologists 



