HAUNTS OF THE SHEARWATER 219 



twenty pairs of those magnificent birds breeding in 

 friendly company with Lesser Black-backed and Her- 

 ring Gulls, and to all appearance neither receiving nor 

 claiming more respect from their neighbours than the 

 Razor-bills, Shags, and Cormorants which scarcely 

 troubled themselves to get out of our way as we 

 scrambled up the rocks. 



Here, as elsewhere, the Shags habitually place their 

 nests under shelter, commonly as far as they can get 

 under a rock. The larger and stronger Cormorants, 

 which are a little earlier in their breeding arrange- 

 ments than their smaller cousins the Shags, as in- 

 variably build their nests in the open, often in the 

 most exposed positions. Into the walls of one Shag's 

 nest, which we noticed, was firmly built a perfectly 

 feathered skeleton of a sun-dried Starling. From an- 

 other, made of stalks and seaweed, containing two 

 eggs still unhatched, a startled mother, as she flapped 

 out from beneath a stone, kicked a miserable object, 

 just out of the shell. 



The story of the wreck of Sir Cloudesley Shovel's 

 victorious fleet is one of the most tragic in the annals 

 of the British Navy. 



Four of his finest vessels were totally lost ; three 

 the Association, Sir Cloudesley Shovel's own ship, the 

 Eagle, and the Romney with the loss of all hands 

 on board with a single exception. The escape of 

 many of the other ships seems to have been little short 

 of miraculous. 



The St. George commanded by Lord Dursley, after- 



