MANX SHEARWATER 555 
several minutes. I have never seen it take a distinct head- 
long plunge after the fashion of Auks and Cormorants. 
As a rule it is found scattered widely over the sea, but small 
flocks rest sometimes on the surface. Though strongly 
crepuscular and nocturnal, yet numbers may be seen 
together in the middle of the day. 
Flight.—The aérial movements are familiar and charac- 
teristic. Five or six flaps of the wings in rapid succession 
are followed by a buoyant and graceful gliding motion, and 
one cannot fail to notice how, ‘without apparent effort, the 
bird wheels from side to side on rigid and outspread pinions. 
Voice.—The hoarse crowing uttered at the breeding- 
colonies and in the darkness of the night, sounds strange 
and weird. The first note may be syllabled cuck, the aecorid 
varies from kéck to a loud cdcd, after which there follows 
a slight pause, then a terminal double vowel-sound like 6-6 
or 0-%. Thus one might attempt to describe the voice 
syllables as cvick-kéh-0-0 ox ciick-cacd-0-t, usually repeated 
three times. I have never heard the bird utter any sound 
when roaming over the sea by day. 
Food.—F loating offal, especially oily substances, and 
cuttle-fish form a considerable portion of the diet; small 
fish are also rapidly snatched up as the bird immerses itself 
immediately beneath the surface of the water. 
Nest. — In spring, about the month of April, Manx 
Shearwaters congregate at their breeding-haunts, by far the 
ereater numbers resorting to islands rather than to the 
mainland. They breed chiefly in burrows excavated to a 
considerable depth in the soft, turfy soil on the slopes of 
cliffs of varying altitudes. The Islanders off the Kerry 
coast informed me that by enlarging the burrows they 
could reach the sitting-birds, Shieh they pulled out and 
despatched for food. ‘The birds bite hard to defend them- 
selves and their offspring. In some instances they do not 
enter burrows, laying in crevices or under large stones. 
Grass is the chief material of which the nest is composed, 
and this, in some instances, appears to be carried to the 
burrows in a fresh and quite green condition (Aplin, 
‘Zoologist,’ 1903, p. 213). In other cases the egg, white in 
colour, is deposited on the bare soil. Both birds share in 
the task of incubation, and it is generally believed that the 
males feed by day over the sea. The solitary young one 
(usually ae about the middle of June) remains in the 
burrow dependent on its parents until some time after it is 
