On the Ornithology of the Fame Islands. 167 



There are commonly reported to be a few pairs of Herring 

 Gulls {Lams argentatus, Linuceus) on the Staples, but I must 

 admit I never identified one. I have heard their numbers 

 spoken of as some three pairs of breeding birds, but strange to 

 say in the photograph of the Gulls on the rocks, taken last 

 summer by Mr. Green, the majority are of this species instead 

 of the Lesser Black-backed Gull. 



The last of the breeding birds, the Kittivvake (Lams 

 tridactylus, Liniiccus) places its nest on the ledges, by the side 

 of the Pinnacles and Skeney Scar, in the immediate vicinity 

 of the Guillemots. 



Placed as the Islands are one might expect a good many 

 stragglers, especially at the time of the spring -and autumn 

 migrations, but the list of winter visitors and other birds that 

 have occasionally been met with, though interesting, would be 

 much too long for me to give you. I may just mention that 

 some birds, which one would hardly expect to meet with, have 

 been procured, for instance, although there is not a single tree 

 or bush, the Tree Creeper has been found, and so has the Pied 

 Flycatcher. The reports from the two light stations, afford a 

 valuable amount of information to that useful but inadequately 

 supported work—" The Report on the Migration of Birds," by 

 Messrs. Harvie-Brown & Cordeaux. 



Wallis in his Natural History of Northumberland, published 

 in 1769, on page 340 of Vol. i, records the capture of the Great 

 Auk, in the following words : — 



" The Penguin, a curious and uncommon bird, was taken alive a 

 fevy years ago in the island of Farn, and presented to the late John 

 William Bacon, Esq., of Etherston, with whom it grew so tame and 

 familiar, that it would follow him with its body erect to be fed." 



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