106 Mr. H. Seebohm — Nates on 



sibly less, though we fancied that they increased during the 

 three days that we were on the island. They are much later 

 breeders than the Puffins ; we saw no eggs, and the birds 

 did not seem to be in a hurry to finish their nests. The 

 colony of Kittiwakes is not so continuous as that of the 

 Puffins ; they seldom occupy cliffs that are not perpendicular, 

 but in some places the nests were crowded on every ledge 

 and projecting stone. The Kittiwake is just as noisy as the 

 Puffin is silent. 



It is not easy to estimate the numbers of pairs of Guille- 

 mots (Lomvia troile) or Razorbills [Alca torda) which breed 

 upon the Great Saltee Island, but they must amount to many 

 thousands. There are many places on the cliffs where, with 

 or without the help of a rope, you may climb amongst the 

 eggs of both these species of birds and pick out handsome 

 varieties of each. The Guillemot's eggs from the Saltees 

 are quite as varied and as rich in colour as those from the 

 Yorkshire cliffs ; and what is very remarkable, when we 

 consider the extraordinary range of variation, there is scarcely 

 an egg to be found in one locality that cannot be matched 

 by an example from the other. Either the birds mix together 

 in their winter quarters, and return indiscriminately to any 

 breeding-ground, irrespective of whether it be or be not 

 their birthplace ; or we must assume that all the present 

 variety in the eggs of the Guillemot had been attained before 

 the dispersal of the original colony, and that the present 

 colonies have not been isolated long enough for any new 

 variations to have been developed. 



Not only are the same varieties found on the Saltees as 

 are found on the Yorkshire cliffs, but the comparative scarcity 

 of the rarer and more beautiful varieties is about the same. 

 When the birds were frightened off their ledges it was piti- 

 able to see the number of eggs precipitated into the sea, but 

 so early in the season these would be replaced by a second 

 laying. 



Three pairs of Great Black-backed Gulls (Larus marinus) 

 breed on the island, one on the highest point, and the others 

 on the top of conspicuous promontories. One of the nests 



