56 NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BELL ROCK. 



her sorrowful quest. Passing a torpedo boat at gun practice, 

 she was seen to signal her also, with the difference that the 

 flags then used had no existence in our code. Later in the 

 evening she was again seen making for Dundee. 



We have had several takes of fish of late, though there 

 seems to be a scarcity of " fry " compared with last year, the 

 absence of which probably accounts for the terns failing to 

 call upon us with their young for a few weeks' feasting prior 

 to commencing their migratory journey southwards. Gannets 

 may be seen at present striking at fish within a few feet of 

 our doorway, while a flock of young gulls hover expectantly, 

 with feeble peeping cries anticipating the feast in store for 

 them when the dinner scraps make their appearance. Further 

 off a few eider ducks who only arrived on the 25th, some- 

 what later than last year evidently eye the proceedings of 

 these juvenile degenerates with disdain, preferring to refrain 

 from such pampered luxuries and dine on the products of the 

 chase alone. The eiders present are as yet all adult males, 

 the females presumably still occupied with family cares teaching 

 the young idea how to shoot, or rather fish, if plucking mussels, 

 catching crabs, etc., can be called so, for such is their diet, and 

 does not include fish. Strange that the foremost arrivals 

 among migratory birds are all males. Why this is so is not 

 agreed upon by observers, some supposing that the females 

 are detained by maternal duties ; others, again, affirm that they 

 migrate en masse, and that the more vigorous males soon out- 

 strip and ungallantly leave the gentler sex to bring up the 

 rear. On the 6th we had our first intimation of the autumnal 

 migratory flight in the arrival of a flock of wheatears, accom- 

 panied by a solitary wren. On the 27th several greenfinches, 

 larks, and starlings were making insane efforts to follow the 

 line of most resistance, resulting in our new lantern receiving 

 its first baptism of blood, as the glass next morning testified. 

 Several porpoises are to be seen puffing and blowing a mile 

 off, and on the 28th a school of " finner " whales were seen 

 heading north. 



I see by the Arbroath Guide that one of our old fog bells 



