278 THE GANNET 



North. Their breeding places are always small islands and 

 rocks in the sea, some distance from Iceland itself : among 

 these the most remarkable are : Grimsoe, the Bird-rocks* 

 and some of the Westmanoer. They come towards the end 

 of April to these chffs. On the surface of the latter, 

 rarely in the sides of the rocks, they build in company 

 their large nests, which consist of seaweed and are always 

 wet. I have often seen them hunting for Fucus digitatus 

 two miles from their breeding place, whither they carry it in 

 their beaks. The mother bird lays in the middle of May, 

 never more than one egg in her nest. In proportion to the 

 size of the bird it is small, almost smaller than that of 

 Pr. glacialis,-\ bluish-white, but with a yellowish-white 

 calcareous shell ; when it has been sat upon for a long time 

 it becomes a dirty yellowish-brown, — as has been said with 

 regard to Podiceps, from the dampness of the nest. The 

 young bird is hatched in the very beginning of July and is 

 then quite bare and very small ; at the end of July it is half- 

 grown, and covered with short yellowish-white down. In 

 1821 I was at this time of the year on the Westmanoer and 

 climbed the small rocky island and found these birds 

 together with their brood. Young and old shrieked dis- 

 cordantly at sight of me — their sole note a deep hard o-r-r-r, 



* No doubt " Eldey " is here meant. 



■j" Procellaria glacialis, the Fulmar Petrel. 



