MB. J. H. GURNEY, JUN., ON THE ISLES OF SCILLY. 453 



eggs. The young ones were very noisy, which attracted our 

 attention as soon as we landed. Their large seaweed nests 

 were all out of sight, hidden away in the clefts of the rocks, but 

 this was, I imagine, not so much for concealment as for protection 

 from wind. 



No Cormorants nest on Inisvouls, and, as far as our experience 

 went, they are much less common on the Scillies than the Shag. 

 Mr. Smart says "the Cormorant is the earliest sea-bird of all in 

 commencing breeding," and that he had taken eggs " slightly 

 incubated on March 14th" (I.e. p. 76); perhaps, therefore, they 

 are earlier than the Shag. On May 30th Mr. Bidwell found 

 young of both nearly ready to fly (I.e. pp. 206, 207), and by the 

 same date those I found would have been quite as forward. The 

 Cormorant is a greedy destroyer of fish : Shakespeare speaks 

 of the 



" Insatiate Cormorant/' 

 and Chaucer of 



"The hote Cormorant full of gluttonie." 



Yet, for all that, one is sorry to hear that Mr. Smart thought it 

 necessary, in the interests of the fishermen, to shoot so many. 



We found a fairly good supply of other sea-birds' nests, but 

 there was too much wind to visit the outer islands, and it was 

 disheartening to see over one hundred Gulls' nests robbed on 

 Menewethan, where Mr. Eidwell had found them breeding in 

 peace. The Gulls eat the corn (of which there is none too much 

 on the islands), as testified by their ejected pellets, a practice which 

 will bring them into disfavour. I saw it some time ago stated in 

 the 'Field* that Gulls never eat corn, but that they do so in 

 Scilly is an undoubted fact, and in the Orkney Islands too, as 

 I can bear witness from the infallible test of dissection. 



Puffins, or " Johnny Popes," as they are called, are very abundant 

 on Scilly. Guillemots, on the other hand, are comparatively rare. 

 My brother-in law and I found several Oystercatchers' nests, and 

 were surprised to see how high up on the rocks they were. It is 

 said that in Lancashire they sometimes lay four eggs ; but we did 

 not find more than three. The Turnstone is extremely common, 

 but never nests here. The Curlew is common, and nowhere 

 are there tamer Purple Sandpipers than on the isles of the 



