AND OTHER BIRDS 45 



possible to select nests within suitable distance 

 of rock and scrub, where by the addition of 

 piled sticks and fallen brushwood a screen or 

 blind could be made to blend into the adjacent 

 scenery. 



The first nest attempted, some fifty yards 

 from the hut, was selected on account of its 

 proximity to our headquarters, and because I 

 had hoped that its owners would have become 

 careless of our presence. Composed of seaweed, 

 grass roots, and shredded drift it was based on 

 the giant pebbles of the beach and safe from all 

 but the most unusual seas, for birds, like men 

 who build on banks of rivers liable to flood, 

 beneath cliffs, and in volcanic areas, will deliber- 

 ately take certain risks. Seas had formerly 

 reached the site of this nest the birds well knew ; 

 they were prepared to chance it again doing so 

 in their time. In the nest were three eggs, two 

 lying on their sides, and a third standing on its 

 end and the top only showing, so deeply was it 

 embedded. This egg, which I think must have 

 belonged to an earlier nest robbed from another 

 pair of Gulls and built over, was exhumed, and 

 as the later tenants accepted it without demur, 

 it was thought that a screen might be safely 

 ventured. Within its shelter for many hours I 

 waited; but the pair were not eager to sit; and 

 although they returned shortly after my com- 

 panion had gone, it was to watch for what the 

 tide would bring up. 



Upon a convenient rock the birds stood, and 

 at long intervals pounced upon stuff brought 

 in by the waves. Once the supply appeared to 

 be something in the nature of a jelly fish, at 

 another it looked like a dead bird. Each of the 



