214 HAUNTS OF THE SHEARWATER 



The Shearwater excepting during the breeding 

 season, when it hides in silence, as if ashamed of 

 coming ashore keeps clear of the land, following with 

 gliding flight, as if it would never tire, the curves of the 

 waves, or pausing for a few seconds a true ' petrel,' the 

 little St. Peter walking on the water to poise its 

 wings and paddle on the surface. 



It is poetically appropriate, though unfortunate, that 

 a bird which in a scarcely less degree than ' Mother 

 Carey's Chicken ' is the embodiment of sea and storm, 

 should have suffered much at the hands of the Elder 

 Brethren of the Trinity House. 



It has been almost, if not quite, driven from its old 

 English stronghold by the erection of the lighthouse on 

 the Calf of Man, and the chief danger now threatening 

 the Scilly colony, which is fairly safe from human 

 molestation under the fostering care of the lord pro- 

 prietor, is the indirect result of the building of another 

 lighthouse. The Bound Island, on which a light was 

 placed eight or nine years ago, was until then the chief 

 home of the Puffins of the Scillies. They seem to have 

 been scarcely less offended at the innovation than were 

 the feathered residents of the Calf of Man, and have 

 revenged themselves by invading the Shearwaters' 

 territory in numbers which threaten to affect materially 

 the prosperity of the rightful owners. From many of the 

 holes into which the writer unintentionally trod when 

 on Annet in the early summer of 1894 was pulled, 

 instead of a Shearwater, an indignant Puffin, which 

 fought hard with beak and claw until it found itself 



