92 ]Mr. C. Dixon on the 



breeding-station, and from a distance looks as if it was 

 covered with a gigantic tablecloth. The masses of birds that 

 crowd upon its sloping summit make this rock a very con- 

 spicuous object, and it maybe distinctl}^ seen from the Long 

 Island, forty miles away, like a large ship under full sail 

 bending to windward. When the birds are disturbed the air 

 is darkened, although but a small percentage takes wing, and 

 the rocks are not visil)ly decreased in whiteness. Very few 

 Gannets are to be seen round St. Kilda. I observed on one 

 or two occasions several birds fishing in the bay, but they 

 never stayed long. The Ganuet is highly prized by the St.- 

 Kildans for its feathers, its oil, and its flesh. The great 

 bulk of these birds come here in May, a few pioneers a little 

 earlier, and they leave as soon as the young (which are called 

 "Gugha^") are strong upon the v.'ing in autumn. Many of 

 the St.-Kilda Gannets obtain their food in the Minch, fifty 

 miles away. 



Procellaria GLAciALis. " Ful-a-mair.^^ 



The Fulmar is |^rtr excellence the bird of St. Kilda. It is 

 a resident in the islands, but Donald told me that they leave 

 the rocks en masse about the middle of October and return 

 about the middle of November. During this time not a 

 Fulmar is to be seen except a few stragglers out at sea in the 

 neighbourhood of the islands. The great haunt of this bird 

 is in the cliffs behind Connacher, and those between that 

 mountain and Mulloch-oshavall, but numbers of Fulmars 

 breed in all suitable situations throughout the group of 

 islands. I shall never forget the grandeur of the scene when 

 I first made the acquaintance of the Fulmar at home. Just 

 before I reached one of the shoulders of Connacher I saw a 

 few Fulmars sailing in graceful flight above the cliff's, then 

 darting downwards again into space. When I reached the 

 summit the scene vras grand. Thousands and tens of thou- 

 sands of Fulmars were flying silently about in all directions, 

 but never by any chance soaring over the land. They con- 

 fined their flight to passing backwards and forwards past the 

 face of the cliffs, or darting downwards to the waves eight 



