266 OUR RARER BIRDS 



from their percliing-places on the rocks, all flying down 

 the slopes to the sea, when many of them rose high in air 

 and returned to circle above our heads in wild alarm. No 

 words of mine can do justice to the strange and wonderful 

 scene — the whole face of the island seemed slipping away 

 from under me as the mass of birds swept by. Not a single 

 bird uttered a note, but the noise of their rapidly-beating wings 

 resembled the distant rash of wind. The highest peaks of 

 this rocky isle were vignetted in a drifting mass of Puffins, 

 flying about, round and round, and to and fro, just as grace- 

 fully as Swifts. This habit of the Puf&n was new to me, and 

 interested me much, for the bird looks so heavy, and its 

 wings are so narrow and small, that I never thought it 

 capable of indulging in such prolonged aerial movements. 

 The Puffin's flight may be witnessed to perfection if you 

 wander along the summit of the cliffs on a breezy day. It 

 can and does fly most gracefully, poising itself on its little 

 wings, and spreading out its two bright orange-coloured legs 

 as a rudder to assist the short tail in steering it through the 

 circumambient air. 



Doon, however, does not harbour so many Puffins as the 

 awful precipice of Connacher, and when I saw them leave 

 this noble cliff like swarm after swarm of bees, and con- 

 grecrate in one dense enormous cloud, the scene was grand — 

 overpowering in its magnificence. The Puffin is highly 

 prized as a delicacy by the natives of St. Kilda. ^lan and 

 woman, young and old — even the very children — join in 

 the chase of this remarkable bird. They dig them from their 

 nests, set horsehair snares for them in every accessible part 

 of the cliffs, and take them with long rods, at the end of 

 which a noose is fastened. The birds are simply plucked, 

 drawn, and salted, and hung up to dry in long strings across 

 the ceilings of the cottages, w^here the smoke from the turf 

 fire assists to cure them. 



