368 MORMON ARCTICUS. 



themselves to the bottom to search for mollusca. When ])ro- 

 ceodiiig to a distance they fly in small bands, in file, just 

 above the waves, and on ajiproaching their nests, wliicli are 

 often at the height of a hundred feet or more, curve upwards 

 and alight abruptly. On the water they usually allow a near 

 approach, and Avhen stationed on th(! rocks they seem almost 

 quite fearless, and may be shot in great numbers, or even 

 taken with a noose. In the places where I have seen them, 

 they formed the holes themselves, by digging with their strong 

 bills, to a depth varying from one to two feet or more. There 

 is no nest, the single egg being laid on the floor at the further 

 end. The bird sits assiduously, and may be taken with the 

 hand, which it is, however, apt to bite very severely. The 

 egg varies in shape and size, being oval, ovato-pyriform, or 

 somewhat oblong, and from two inches and seven-twelfths to 

 two-twelfths less in length, and from an inch and tliree- 

 fourths to four-twelfths less. It is roughish, with minute 

 granules, and at first pure white, but soon becomes soiled. 

 Some of the eggs are very faintly freckled with grey or jjalc- 

 brown. The young continue in their nest or near it until 

 able to fly. About the middle of August they all leave their 

 breeding-places, and proceed southward. The desertion of 

 the cliffs by the various sea-birds at this season produces a 

 strange and disagreeable contrast to their crowded state during 

 the summer, and is viewed by the poor islander with a kind 

 of melancholy regret, less intense, however, than the joy he 

 experiences when he finds them, for the first time for the 

 season, rotiirncd to their favourite haunts. How many hearts 

 have thrilled with pleasvire when the early notes of the Corn 

 Crake or Cuckoo came on the ear ! But how faint is the sen- 

 timental feeling of happiness so caused compared with the 

 delight which pervades the Avhole frame, moral and ])hysical, 

 of the Esquimaux, who has been buried all winter in snow, 

 when he hears the trumpet-cries of the Wild Goose, or of the 

 native of St. Kilda, whose stock of salted foAvl has been 

 exhausted, when, on visiting the long deserted cliff's, he finds 

 its shelves covered with Razor-bills, and its grassy summits 

 peopled with Puffins. Many persons have written of St. 

 Kilda, from " M. Martin, Gentleman," to Dr. M'Culloch 



