IN THE SHETLANDS 93 
expect would be the case, seeing the ease with which 
the bird can at any moment squirt it out, when angry, 
and the distance to which it is shot. Nor is this the 
only power of the kind which these petrels possess, 
for they are able to eject their excrement to a quite 
astonishing distance—greater even, perhaps, than that 
to which the cormorant or shag attains in this art—at 
least it seems so at the time. This power is fully 
developed in the chick—by whom, indeed, it is the 
more needed—and I notice that the rock where each 
one lies is clean enough, though all round about it is 
whitened. 
When the mother petrel leaves the chick, she, for 
the most part, continually circles round in the neigh- 
bourhood, and almost at every circle looks in at it, 
sometimes waking it up as it lies asleep, causing it 
to give an impatient little snap of the bill towards 
her. It is as though she could not sufficiently love, 
cherish, and look at it. It is her only child, and a 
spoilt one. 
I must not forget to note down—now that it is full 
before me—that the inside of the chick’s bill, with the 
mouth generally, is somewhat more lightly coloured 
than in the old bird; it is more pink—which may 
represent the natural colour—and less mauvy. This 
difference, as in the other cases, is what we might 
expect to see, were the colour a sexual adornment ; 
but why, if it is not so, should there be any difference 
depending on age in such a region? 
The great skua still reigns here in its accustomed 
