70 NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OP THE BELL ROCK. 



not tolerated amongst them, judging by the vigorous efforts of 

 each to be heard above his neighbour. Probably the new 

 lighthouse is being discussed in the light of an innovation 011 

 their ancestral rights of possession, and later, as its beams 

 fall athwart their nursery, tradition may recall man's former 

 intrusion on their solitary keep many hundred years ago. No 

 doubt their ups and downs since last meeting on terra firm 

 are fully discussed, for it is a curious fact that these birds are 

 rarely, if ever, known to rest on shore except when engaged in 

 domestic duties. Occasionally a depraved specimen may be 

 seen floating helplessly on the water, a victim of his own 

 gluttony, having dined not wisely but too well. 



February has been a repetition of its predecessor, cold and 

 blowy, with excessive rainfalls. In a shallow depression on 

 the higher rock surface our attention has been attracted to a 

 solitary plant, a specimen, I understand, of " Himanthalia 

 lorea." A cylindrical stem (an inch in length) supports a 

 thick, fleshy disc, about an inch in diameter. From the 

 centre of this disc three separate branches rise with their 

 terminals, blunted at first, but which were gradually seen 

 to bifurcate. This is our " flower in the crannied wall," and 

 is in its own way equally as suggestive. 



The eiders are occasionally seen varying their diet with a 

 vegetable course. Seizing the tip of a tangle blade two or 

 three inches from the surface, they spin round it like a top, 

 till the portion held in their bill is twisted off and greedily 

 swallowed. No need for them to evade the gulls while 

 engaged in this repast. It is most amusing to witness the 

 discomfiture of the gulls as they hurry from a distance expecting 

 to share in something edible, only to find the duck negotiating 

 six inches of seaweed. That the white whelk itself is not im- 

 mune from enemies was recently brought before our notice, one 

 being picked up with a long black worm dangling from its 

 mouth. On withdrawing the worm somewhat resembling a 

 boot lace portions of the deceased tenant followed. Doubt- 

 less every organism ha,s its own particular parasite. 



" Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em, 

 And these again have lesser fleas and so ad infinitum" 



