22 NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OP THE BELL ROCK. 



in default of imprisonment, he is mulcted in the contents of 

 his stomach, the nemesis in this case being the dusky-coated 

 skua or robber gull, who with his hawk-like flight easily heads 

 him at every turn, and the chase terminates only when the 

 contents of the stomach are disgorged, or the excrement 

 voided, either of which is adroitly caught by this foul free- 

 booter of the sea before it reaches the water. 



A hazy moonless night, with a sou'-easterly breeze and 

 drizzling rain given these conditions, at this season of the 

 year we have numerous visits of various birds, members of the 

 autumnal migratory flight. Making straight for the light, 

 they dash themselves against the heavy plate-glass of the 

 lantern; many of them are thus killed and swept by the 

 wind into the sea. Others, again, arrive with more caution, 

 and though taken in the hand and thrown clear of the tower 

 invariably return, and remain fluttering against the glass till 

 daylight reveals to them the futility of their exertions in that 

 direction. The most numerous of these visitors are the red- 

 wings and fieldfares, but blackbirds, larks, starlings, wheatears, 

 finches, tits, etc., may be met with in the course of the 

 season. It is somewhat startling, when on watch in the light- 

 room, to hear the thud with which they strike. The wood- 

 cock, owing to his rapid flight, strikes hardest of all, and the 

 other extreme is met with in the smallest of our British birds, 

 the tiny gold-crested wren, whose presence on the lantern is 

 announced by a feeble tinkling sound, which a robust butter- 

 fly might easily imitate. The heavier birds do not always 

 strike with impunity ; instances have occurred where ducks 

 have gone clean through the lantern to the derangement of 

 the revolving gear of the light, the splintered glass bringing 

 the machinery to a dead stop. An incident of this nature 

 happened a few years ago at Turnberry Lighthouse, on the 

 Ayrshire coast, the intruder in this case being a curlew or 

 whaup. A storm-pane is considered a necessary adjunct to 

 every lightroom, and is always held in readiness to be shipped 

 in case of such emergency. At some shore stations it is 

 customary on the approach of a favourable night, during the 



