6 Mr. R. Hall 07i the 



Avas on the top of a clump of Azorella, exposed to the Skuas, 

 according to the account given by one of our young men. 

 The nest is made to accommodate the number of eggs. If 

 three eggs belong to it, the internal diameter is 5 inches; if 

 Jour, the diameter within is 7 inches. In two cases, on 

 February 2ud, at Betsy Cove, the clutch of hard-set eggs 

 was only two. When tlie young arc hatched they remain 

 for some time on the high land, far from any water. The 

 specimens that I obtained were preserved. 



Chjonakciius minor (Hartlaub); Sharpc, Cat. B. xxiv. 

 p. 711. 



I found the Sheathbill congregating in numbers, varying 

 from half a dozen to 14, but I once saw an isolated pair. 

 This shore-loving bird is a pest alike to Penguins and Cor- 

 morants. One of my photographs shows an adult Penguin 

 about to feed a young one nearly of its own size. Both are 

 standing in company with a Slieathbill, and just as the young 

 Penguin is bending forward to take a dainty morsel from 

 the mouth of the parent, the Sheathbill jumps upon its 

 shoulders, both bend forward, and tiie longer neck secures 

 the prize. The second case is rather more serious ; for, 

 having disturbed a pair of Gulls from their nest, I started 

 to photograph the subject. In the meantime a pair of 

 the Sheathbills came up and quietly pecked a hole in one 

 egg j naturally the chick called out ; the hole was then 

 increased and the chick hauled fortii, and piece by piece 

 eaten in a few minutes. All this time the very shy Gulls 

 were looking on. The same kind of apparent crime takes 

 place with the Cormorants. One pair of Sheathbills always 

 haunts a rookery, and, going quietly in and out among 

 the Shags, they pick up what they can. Eggs they go 

 straight for, and they seem grateful to a stranger who disturbs 

 the colony, for then comes their special opportunity. I 

 have seen the Sheathbills walking round a nest of feathered 

 young Cormorants as if they expected to be allowed to take 

 a bite from the wing of a young one, and they would have 

 done so, if no defence had been made. "While seated on a 

 thoroughly uncomfortable rock, one of a pair approached me. 



