WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 187 



sand-eel, whenever I saw it) held lengthways in the 

 beak, with the tail drooping out to one side of it, 

 and the head part more or less within the throat — a 

 position which seems to suggest that it may have been 

 swallowed or partially swallowed — whereas puffins 

 and razorbills carry the fish they catch crosswise, 

 with head and tail depending on either side. 



I have also once or twice thought that I saw a 

 bird which just before had had no fish in its bill, all 

 at once carrying one. But I may well have been 

 mistaken ; and it does not seem at all likely that the 

 birds should usually carry their fish, and thus, as will 

 appear shortly, subject themselves to persecution, if 

 they could disgorge it without inconvenience. With 

 regard to the occasional absence of the head, perhaps 

 this is sometimes cut off in catching the fish, or before 

 it is swallowed, which may also have been the case 

 with the herrings brought by the great skuas to their 

 young. However, I can but give the facts, as far as I 

 was able to observe them. 



Married birds sometimes behave in a pretty manner 

 with the fish that they bring to each other, and if 

 coquetry be not the right word to apply to it, I know 

 of none better. The following is my note made at 

 the time : — 



" A bird flies in with a fine sand-eel in his bill, and 

 having run the gauntlet of the whole ledge with it, 

 at last succeeds in bringing it to his partner. For a 

 long time now, these two coquet together with the 

 fish. The one that has brought it keeps biting and 

 nibbling at it, moving his head about with it from side 

 to side, bringing it down upon the ledge between his 

 feet, then raising it again, seeming to rejoice in the 



