Birds' -Nesting Season. 67 



move off, and when one mare lingered behind the rest 

 with a tiny foal not many days old, which skipped 

 about like a lamb, and looked scarcely bigger, he 

 cantered down and at once drove her up. The 

 stallions' place as they move is last in the herd. 

 The standard height for a Shetland pony is 40 inches, 

 and the present value of a fairly good one not taller, 

 from \ 5 to 20. Many of them, poor little creatures, 

 leave their island to spend the rest of their lives in 

 coal-mines ; but there has lately been a considerable 

 demand from America, and many now go there. 



On leaving the castle we made a circuit to the 

 south-east, gathering a few common eggs for cooking, 

 and crossing a beautiful bay of shining sand composed 

 entirely of powdered shells of every shade of white, 

 pink, yellow, and blue. 



The cliffs here are very irregular. In places little 

 caves, running in some way, have been bored by the 

 waves and loose rocks, and as we walked near the 

 edge, from underneath our feet came uncanny sounds 

 whisperings of young Starlings and underground 

 rumblings and boomings of the sea, as if Trolls and 

 imprisoned giants still lingered on the island. 



Once a Lark rose close by us from a nest so well 

 concealed that we looked without finding it, until, as 

 if by magic, four Kingcups the wide opened orange 

 mouths of as many little birds just hatched with 

 chins touching, and necks stretched out till they 

 looked a single stalk, shot up from the short heather 

 and burst into full blossom at our feet. A few yards 

 further on we picked up a baby Lapwing, which was 

 doing its best to hide under a tussock of grass. The 

 shepherds say that young Ringed Plovers are even 

 more wide awake, and that a chick just out of the 

 egg, when hard pressed, will grasp a dead leaf 



