IN THE SHETLANDS 73 
its young and come out again, it will often sit for a 
little on the steep slope, above or below the hole, 
before flying away. It looks solicitously at the hole, 
and from time to time utters a little thin note that just 
reaches me where I am. Once both the birds sat like 
this, one above and one below the hole. What I par- 
ticularly noticed was that when the bird that had 
taken a fish in had come out again, the other, even 
though it had nothing, would always go in too, as 
though to pay the chick a little visit. It stayed about 
the same time—less than a minute that is to say. 
How interesting are these little birds to watch, and 
how delightful is it to watch them from the summit of 
precipices that “beetle o’er their base into the sea,” 
where all is wild and tremendous, and in the midst of 
utter solitude ! 
