IN THE SHETLANDS PEF 
proper to the courting period were in abeyance. 
Now, however, they are free, and, under the influence 
of returning emotion, have become nolsy again, as 
no doubt, at the very beginning, they were noisier still. 
Though their physical energy may not be sufficient 
to enable them to rear another brood, that, I am sure 
—and there is plenty of evidence of it—is what they 
feel like—there is dalliance and a “smart set” 
morality. But with the petrels, at the same time, 
things had not gone so far—some, if I remember 
rightly, had not even yet laid their egg—and so their 
nuptial vociferations were more energetic than they 
are now—or, at any rate, I think they were. Here, 
then, was a mistake, and I have shown clearly how it 
came about. Some perhaps—especially those who 
get all their information from books, and feel as if 
they had found it out for themselves—may admit no 
excuse for it, my explanation notwithstanding ; but, 
for my part, I think it is easy to make mistakes. 
Had but one of the guillemots on my own ledge been 
so good as to bray for me, all would have been well, 
but never a word did any of them say except “ik, 
iescik-{*’ 
There was another point on which “Fulmar 
Petrel” took exception to what I said about him—or 
rather to what I seemed to say. In view of his oil- 
squirting and other unangelic propensities, he thought 
the descriptive phrase “half angel and half bird,” 
which formed the title of my article, was not quite 
suitable to him. Well, I may tell him now that I 
