THE ISLE OF BIRDS 101 



they preferred. If they had preferred the 

 territory of the puffins or the auks, or even of 

 the big bullying saddle-backs which were 

 nearly twice their size, they would have taken 

 it. But they neither desired nor knew how 

 to dig burrows like the droll little puffins ; 

 and they valued their precious eggs too highly 

 to want to risk them on the narrow, exposed 

 shelves of the cliff-face, where there was no 

 room to make a proper nest. They took the 

 places they wanted, but as these were not the 

 places which the other tribes wanted, there 

 was no one to feel aggrieved. Saddle-back, 

 auk, and puffin each tribe thought it had 

 the pick of the island territory, and felt alto- 

 gether satisfied with itself. 



Now, the weakest of these tribes was the 

 tribe of the puffins. But one great strength 

 they had, which fully made up for their defi- 

 ciency in size and power. They knew how to 

 burrow deep holes for their nests, wherein 

 their eggs and nestlings were safe from the 

 skuas and the saddle-backs. Every avail- 

 able inch of soil on the island was tunnelled 

 with these burrows, like a rabbit-warren. At 

 the bottom of each burrow was either one big, 

 solitary egg, or a strange-looking youngster 

 with enormous head and beak and an in- 

 satiable appetite for fish. At this season, 



