“Reduced to Birdsnesting ” 3 
Suffice to say, my “reduced” party who had not been too proud 
to reduce themselves temporarily to my level accompanied me to 
the island where we stopped for a night. We were rewarded for 
our two days explorations by some of the most splendid scenery, 
innumerable wild flowers and some grand cliffs where Guillemots, 
Razorbills, Puffins and various Gulls nested in profusion. The 
following day it blew too hard on the land for our chartered fishing- 
smack to come out and take us off, but this was but an added joy 
for it resulted in my obtaining the use of the coastguard’s lifeboat 
and sailing her under close-reefed lug with the wind about three 
points on our quarter through a glorious sea to a small haven on 
the mainland under our lee. 
The memory of that delightful expedition (and it is in very truth 
only one of many hundreds in which I have taken part) is ever 
fresh and I can still see the myriads of rock birds wheeling around 
the precipices on the face of which we scrambled and hear the 
roar of their combined ten thousand cries. Nor have I forgotten 
the feel of the helm of the lifeboat as she strove to run off a big 
following sea. Those of my brother officers who accompanied me 
on that trip speak with enthusiasm of all they saw to this day. So 
I am content to think that although we could not smoke cigarettes 
or look at the A7zfannza’s boom we saw other things which gave 
one an added joy in life. 
Those who read these remarks on birdsnesting may very natu- 
rally ask whether it is my aim and object to induce everybody to 
become hunters and robbers of nests. I need hardly say that nothing 
could be further from my intentions and that I should view with 
dismay any serious increase in the numbers of those who harry 
and harass wild birds especially the wild birds of the British 
Islands during the nesting season. Should the story of my birds- 
nesting experiences therefore be likely to lead to this undesirable 
result, nothing would induce me to give it to the world. But all 
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