BIRDS 



455 



Fig. 972. Young Kittiv/ake (Rissa tridactyla} 

 on Nest 



Plover (Ckaradrius pluvialis], where it is simply a slight hollow 

 in the ground, with a scanty lining of dry herbage. Many sea-birds 

 heap together such materials as are available into a somewhat rough 

 nest, without any special attempt 

 at concealment, as the inaccessible 

 position gives a reasonable amount 

 of security. Unfortunately the per- 

 verse ingenuity of man is difficult 

 to baffle, and he is not the only 

 egg - collector. Jackdaws, for ex- 

 ample, are described by Dixon as 

 making regular plundering expedi- 

 tions around the Bass Rock, trans- 

 fixing eggs with their beaks, and 

 thus carrying them off to serve as 

 food. The most prominent sea- 

 bird in this famous spot is of course 

 the Gannet or Solan Goose (Sula 

 Bassana), and it is computed that not less than twelve thousand 

 adult birds of this species find nesting-places there. The domestic 

 arrangements are thus described by Dixon (in Among the Birds 

 in Northern Shires\ "The nests are made almost any where- 

 at the top of the cliffs 

 amidst the broken 

 rocks and crags, lower 

 down the cliffs where 

 any ordinary climber 

 can reach them, and, 

 most numerously of 

 all, on the ledges far 

 below which are only 

 accessible with the 

 aid of a rope. To say 

 the least, the nest is 

 not a very attractive 

 one; it is often trodden out of all semblance to such a structure, 

 and frequently covered with droppings and slime, whilst around it 

 are dead and decaying fish, many of them disgorged when partly 

 digested. The hot sun soon completes the work of decomposition, 

 and generates a fearsome stench which it requires all the fortitude 



Fig. 973. Nest of Skylark (A lauda arvensis] 



