THE ISLE OF BIRDS 117 



completely torn out, lay unresisting beneath 

 the broad, pink, heavy-webbed feet of his 

 conquerors. 



Suddenly, as if at a signal, all three saddle- 

 backs lifted their heads and stared about 

 them, They marked their victim's mate 

 winging upward toward them from the sea, 

 swiftly, as if a prescience of evil had sum- 

 moned her. They saw two other skuas sail- 

 ing down from the cliff-top, as if to demand 

 their business in skua territory. They had 

 no stomach to face that demand ; they had 

 no heart for a fight on anything approaching 

 fair terms. Flapping heavily into the air, 

 they flew off in haste to lose themselves in the 

 myriads of their screaming fellows. The 

 female skua, returning, hovered low ; but she 

 did not alight. In silence, her head thrust 

 downwards, she circled and circled endlessly 

 on dark wings above the scattered ruins of 

 her nest, the bedraggled and tattered body 

 of her slain mate. And the stiff ranks of 

 the puffins, like fantastic toy birds carved in 

 wood and painted, stared down upon her 

 solemnly from the slopes near by. 



