The Coming of Spring to the Mist Islands 



the ear; curious, sharp, though plaintive sounds, as the 

 geese spread into line. Then, marshalled into order, they 

 made their way towards the west for a time, but were un- 

 willing to leave their island, and turned about, crossing 

 over me at greatly increased speed, their many cries 

 sounding as a confused, though musical, murmur. Back- 

 ward and forward they flew for a while. At one time they 

 were accompanied by a raven, the dark bird of wisdom 

 moving with the flock only a short distance before he 

 turned off and hung, looking for all the world like a 

 peregrine, in the teeth of the wind. 



Sometimes the mist curtain lifted somewhat, and then 

 the hills of the mainland showed themselves. 



Snow rarely visits the island, and even in January the 

 grass was green and the great clumps of sea thrift were show- 

 ing vigorous growth. 



In the mild mist-laden wind one imagined there was 

 borne the breath of the coming spring. The raven, at 

 least, must have felt the impulse of life, for he, the very 

 first of all birds to nest, must shortly repair his home 

 on the precipitous cliff. Before February is out his mate 

 will be brooding her speckled eggs, with the salt spray in 

 her face and with the storms of wind and rain beating on 

 her strong plumage. 



But not for many months will the island throb with 

 its great bird population. Every spring does the isle 

 give itself over to countless feathered travellers, who leave 

 the seas, where they have spent the winter months, and 

 rear their young in its recesses. The puffin, after its long 

 sea journey from beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, reaches 

 the island during the first days of May, and almost at 

 once sets about examining the burrow in which it reared 

 its solitary child last summer. The black guillemot breeds 

 on the rocks, and the storm petrel broods on its one white 

 egg in the twilight that is present among the crevices of the 

 great boulders. 



