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number of " steering " gulls and some " mackerel " gulls flying 

 overhead, whilst the whole island under foot was perforated and 

 undermined by the petrels. He says : 



" I first took a tour all around the grassy edge of the cliffs to look 

 for gulls' eggs. I got two dozen of the ' steering gulls ' ' eggs, and the 

 men eight dozen. Tore up the turf with my hands, following the little 

 galleries with my fingers, and soon secured four dozen and a half of 

 petrels' eggs, and two of the parent birds as specimens. I could have 

 obtained, I suppose, a thousand dozen of the eggs if I had wished, and 

 every mother bird with them, as the poor little things crowd back into 

 their holes, making not the slightest noise or resistance whilst they be- 

 hold the roof rudely torn from their dwelling, and their eggs taken away. 

 In no instance, except one, did I find more than one egg in a nest, and 

 in that there were but two ; and yet some of the birds were hatching, 

 as some of the eggs contained the embryo with its head and body so far 

 developed as to clearly identify the species. The smell of the birds is 

 at first very offensive ; indeed we perceived it at a distance of two miles 

 from the island. This smell is not occasioned by any decayed fish or 

 other extraneous matter, as the nests and surrounding turf are invaria- 

 bly very clean, the nest itself being lined at the bottom with a very 

 little dry fine grass. The odor is peculiar to the bird and its egg, and 

 is particularly perceptible in the dark brown oily fluid which, seemingly 

 in self-defence, these birds eject from their bills. 



" The sun was just rising when we landed on the island, and although 

 we had seen several petrels flying about the boat in the night and at 

 dawn of day on our passage, yet on the island not one was to be seen. 

 All were underground, where at first you could hear their twittering, 

 as if arranging about nests and accommodations; but soon after sunrise 

 they became almost entirely silent, at least so far as the screaming of 

 the gulls, which was always about the same, would allow you to judge. 

 On taking a petrel out of its nest, it would not on being set down 

 attempt to fly at first, but would endeavor to dig its way down into 

 some of the broken holes. Most of the nests seemed to be old ones 

 newly fitted up, and I found several such where the bird had brought 

 quite a sprinkling of fresh dirt out to the surface. They seem to form 

 their galleries not so much by carrying out the surplus dirt, however, 

 as by pressing themselves through the soft turfy soil. A great many 

 ants had made their nests among the galleries, but did not seem to in- 

 commode the birds ; perhaps, indeed, they serve them for food at 

 times. 



" I saw no traces of mice or rats on the island, and but few insects, 

 but a dead gull had been torn to pieces and eaten by something, so that 



