AMONG THE SEA-BIRDS. 125 



the nests are built in niches of the big boulders and rock 

 ledges, others are amongst the sea campion, and not a 

 few are in deep hollows where the burrows made by the 

 Puffins have fallen in. The eggs are olive brown of 

 various shades in ground colour, spotted and blotched 

 with darker brown and grey. In most parts of this 

 island the ground is undermined with burrows which 

 wind and turn in every direction, the peaty earth trem- 

 bling beneath our footsteps, and every now and then we 

 sink knee deep into the soft brown soil. These burrows 

 are made by the comical little Puffins which are great 

 adepts at tunnelling. They make their scanty nest of 

 dry grass at the end of these subterranean passages, and 

 there lay a single white egg faintly spotted with gray. 

 But very few of the birds are to be seen, although we 

 passed great numbers on the water as we sailed to the 

 islands. But almost every burrow we chance to select 

 has got a Puffin in it, which is easily pulled out if due 

 care is exercised to prevent the indignant bird from 

 biting the hand that grasps it. When captured these 

 birds will bite fiercely and scratch like cats with their 

 yellow feet. Their solitary egg is usually much dis- 

 coloured by contact with the peaty soil and the parent 

 birds' wet feet. In the crevices of the rocks and under 

 the big flat stones which strew the ground here and there 

 we may be pretty sure of finding the simple little nest of 

 the Rock Pipit ; but this bird breeds earlier than the 



