120 THE BIKDS OF THE OUTER FAKNES 



which is patched with a thick growth of bladder campion 

 and another plant, with a succulent stalk and white 

 blossom, but is for the most part bare rock, split into 

 steps, with little but lichen growing on it. The nests, 

 which are placed without any attempt at concealment, 

 are all on the ground, and are at best a few stalks of 

 grass or campion arranged like a saucer, but in many 

 instances the eggs are laid without even this provision 

 being made for them. They were as thick on the bare 

 rock as in the cover. One or two nests had in them 

 young birds in speckled down, just hatched; but nearly 

 all had two or three eggs in, varying often much in 

 colour. 



The eggs of the two allied species breeding together 

 can be distinguished only by marking the nests as the 

 birds rise. It is a peculiarity of the Gulls generally 

 that eggs are often laid after the birds have begun to 

 sit, and it is a common thing to find eggs fresh and 

 hard set in the same nest. 



But the most curious sight on the Brownsman Island 

 was the adjoining colony of the Guillemots. These, so 

 far as we saw then, were entirely confined to the tops of 

 the Pinnacle Rocks, which had first attracted our notice. 

 Stray birds, we were told, occasionally breed in other 

 parts of the island; but we saw no eggs elsewhere. 

 The Pinnacles are three or four precipitous columns of 

 black basalt, inaccessible except by ladders, separated 

 from the mainland of the island and from each other by 

 narrow chasms running sheer down to the sea. The 

 tops are flat, and as we stood on the edge of the rocky 



