432 BRITISH BIRDS. 



waves. If a piece of meat be thrown to them they often seize it before it 

 sinks, but instead of diving after it as a Duck or a Guillemot would do, 

 they alight on the surface feet first, and in the most comical way let them- 

 selves sink down in the water with uplifted wings. They are rather stupid 

 birds, and do not see half the food thrown out to them ; but their power 

 of continued flight is very marvellous. They follow a steamer going fifteen 

 miles an hour against a head-wind of still greater speed, with such ease 

 that only an occasional flap of their wings is observable, and when the 

 stern is reached they wheel gracefully round with the line of their long 

 outstretched wings frequently brought for a moment at right angles to the 

 surface of the water. In very wet weather they disappear; but half a gale 

 of wind does not appear to interfere with their movements in the least, 

 except that their wings are more actively employed, though even then they 

 continually skim along with outspread motionless wings over the surface 

 of the waves, bounding over their crests and descending into the hollows. 

 It is not to be supposed that the same individuals follow the ship across 

 the Atlantic ; on some days the number is very few, on others greater, 

 and generally at sunset every bird disappears. 



Dixon made the following notes on this species during his visit to St. 

 Kilda in June last year : — " In no part of its extensive range can the habits 

 of the Fulmar be studied so easily or to better advantage than at St. Kilda 

 and its adjoining isles. A visitor approaching these famous islands for 

 the first time gazes at them with great disappointment if he be an orni- 

 thologist, for not a tithe of their bird riches is exposed to view ; not a 

 single Fulmar is to be seen, and the place seems almost destitute of bird- 

 life. The o-rcat stronghold of the Fulmar is out of sight behind the 

 towcrino- hills and crags that hem the small bay on three sides ; and it is 

 not until an ascent of them has been made that a glimpse of the bird can 

 be obtained. In crossing the forty miles of Atlantic swell which separates 

 St. Kilda from the Outer Hebrides a few stray Fulmars perhaps hover 

 above the vessel or fly silently around, but that is the only evidence of the 

 presence of the famous bird-bazaar ahead. The clifi's at St. Kilda arc not 

 by any means the terrible places I expected to find. Grand and stupendous 

 I admit they are, but beyond the celebrated ' stacks ' (masses of rock 

 risino- almost abruptly from the ocean) there are comparatively few cliffs 

 that a tolerable climber could not explore unaided by a rope. Most of 

 the cliffs are broken, and all are more or less studded with grassy slopes, 

 on most of which sheep graze in comparative safety. In many places, 

 although the cliff" is very precipitous, it is covered with grass, sorrel, and 

 other plants, and a loose rich soil. It is in such spots that the Fulmar 

 breeds in the greatest numbers. I shall never forget the imposing effect 

 of this noble bird-nursery. Just before I reached one of the shoulders of 



