510 laridj:. 



or six flitting silently across the sound, or steering out to sea. 

 The latest fishers from the colony of Terns arc coming home 

 from the sandy shallows, five or six miles away, with their 

 throats and beaks crammed with Lance- fish, when the Shear- 

 waters begin to wake. You will not see them come out of 

 their holes ; you first catch sight of them skimming round 

 the corner of a rock close to the water. Perhaps they will 

 have a great gathering, such as I encountered one evening in 

 ' SmitFs Sound.' There was a congregation of at least three 

 hundred, in the middle of the tide-way, washing, dipping, 

 preening feathers, and stretching wings, evidently just awake, 

 and making ready for the night''s diversion. As I wanted a 

 few specimens more than I had dug out of the burrows, I 

 ran my boat well up to them, and Avhen they rose, got as 

 many as I washed, besides a few unfortunate cripples who 

 were only winged, and proved, by their agility in swimming 

 and diving, a good deal too much for my boatmen. I think 

 a good dog would have no chance with them. They allowed 

 me to come quite close. They sit low in the w\ater ; they 

 make no noise Avhen disturbed, though in their holes they 

 are eloquent enough, the Scillonian synonyms of Crew and 

 Cockalhodon being derived from the guttural melodies they 

 pour forth as the spade approaches the end in which the eg^g 

 is deposited. I once caught a pair in one burrow who were 

 crooning a duet of this kind before we commenced operations. 

 I presume they were in the honey-moon, as there was no 

 ^gg. It is frequently deposited on the fine sandy soil with- 

 out any preparation, though generally there is a slight accu- 

 mulation of fern leaves and old stems. They produce but 

 one egg, which, when fresh laid, is of the most dazzling white- 

 ness, and of peculiarly beautiful texture ; it measures two 

 inches five lines in length, by one inch nine lines in breadth, 

 and is very large for the size of the bird. When you kill a 

 Shearwater by pressure, as I generally did for the sake of 



