MB. J. H. GURNET, JUN., ON THE ISLES OF SCILLY. 449 



not certain that they even once allude to it. Willughby, who 

 visited the Land's End with Ray, in 1662, heard that it was found 

 on Scilly, a statement repeated by Pennant and Selby ; but it was 

 not until Mitchell's well-known narrative of the colony on Annet 

 appeared in the first edition of Yarrell's * British Birds/ that 

 anything definite was known. This reticence was probably due to 

 its peculiar habits. Botoner, after mentioning St. Mary's, says : 

 " Imula Rascow p Tresco] pertinet abbati Tavystock, continet in 

 longitudine 3 miliaria, et in latitudine 3 rtliliaria^ inculta, cum 

 cuniculis et avibus vocatis pophyns."* The reference here is, 

 probably, to the true Puffin, though it may be to the Shearwater ; 

 but, apparently, the word "Puffin" is not in use among the 

 natives now for either species. Botoner was no naturalist, and his 

 references to birds are very scanty; in one place (p. 154), 

 apparently referring to an island of the Scilly group, he couples 

 Cormorants with Cats and Mice ! f 



Perhaps the most interesting bird at Scilly is the Manx 

 Shearwater, and strange to say, of the forty islands which bear 

 herbage, it inhabits only one the island' of Annet. Annet is 

 said to be the only island where there are no Eats, which abound 

 on most of them. Possibly the odour of the Shearwaters is 

 distasteful, for they could certainly swim across from St. Agnes. J 

 There had been a terrible robbery on Annet, a few days before our 

 visit, of Shearwaters or their eggs, or both, and the south end of 

 the island was dug over in all directions. Notwithstanding 

 this, we had no difficulty in finding the objects of our search ; 

 indeed the ground was so honeycombed, that it was impossible in 

 some places to avoid stepping on, and breaking into, their domiciles. 



Mr. H. A. Macpherson, in a remarkably interesting paper, has 

 fully discussed the question to what degree Shearwaters are 

 nocturnal in the breeding season (Trans. Norfolk and Norwich 

 Nat. Soc. vol. iv. p. 215), and I will only say that we observed one 



* Itinerarium "Willelmi Botoner, p. 98. 



f Many early notices of Cornish birds are quoted or referred to in 

 Mr. Harting's Introduction to the ' Birds of Cornwall.' 



% The Rev. M. A. Mathew says there is a strong colony of Shearwaters on 

 Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire, and no Eats. But the happy conjunction 

 does not seem to have been noticed elsewhere. It is said, though it is 

 unlikely to be true, that they were extirpated by Rats in Man. 



VOL. IV. G G 



