356 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



December ; the majority, however, arrive in IMarch and April 

 and depart in September and October. 



In spring and summer a Gannet colony is a wonderful sight ; 

 the ledges of the precipitous crags are lined with birds, the 

 rocks are whitewashed until an outcrop like Stack Lii, in the 

 St. Kilda group, looks one great white pinnacle. Fifty miles or 

 more east of the rock, when I visited it, birds were passing to 

 and fro, some fishing, others hastening with food for the young. 

 As we drew nearer the crowd became denser until thousands 

 were passing overhead or diving on all sides ; above the rock 

 was a swirling cloud of birds ; an estimate of numbers is the 

 merest guesswork. Mr. Kirkman well describes the colony on the 

 Bass ; he tells how the birds raise their wings and, with stiffened 

 neck and upright pointed bill, prepare to launch forth, how the 

 flight is not a downward swoop, but horizontal or even slightly 

 upward. The arrival of incoming birds is more surprising ; 

 their speed and weight brings them with such velocity that one 

 expects them to dash themselves against the rock, but throwing 

 the wings well forward, they grip the air and check momentum, 

 though it is true they sometimes miss their fooling and fall, 

 recovering themselves in the air for another attempt. Mr. Kirk- 

 man watched the courtship antics as, with uplifted or flapping 

 wings, they knock their great bills together, or caress one another 

 more gently, frequently growling notes of love, and constantly 

 wagging their heads. The nests are made of seaweed, turf or 

 vegetation torn from the cliff-top, and decorated with all sorts 

 of odds and ends ; golf-balls, paper, a parasol and candle-ends 

 have been found in the nests. Like Rooks and other colonial 

 nesters, the birds are not above petty larceny, and frequent 

 squabbles are caused by nest robbing ; sometimes a fighting 

 couple will fall over the crag into the sea and there settle the 

 dispute. 



The single egg is bluish green beneath its chalky outer 

 deposit, and is usually stained by its wet surroundings. The 



