126 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



sea-fowl, and most probably its five mottled brown eggs 

 are hatched or at least highly incubated. Here and 

 there in a hollow in some rocky ridge the Eider Ducks 

 are breeding. They make a slight nest of withered 

 herbage and line it warmly with the soft down from 

 their breasts as soon as they begin to lay their pale 

 green eggs. The drakes never come near the nests, all care 

 of the eggs being left to the female. When she leaves 

 her charge, however, for a little time to search for food 

 she joins her mate on the sea and they swim in company. 

 The female Eiders are remarkably tame and often allow 

 the observer to stroke them gently with the hand as 

 they sit confidingly on their nests. A few pairs of 

 Herring Gulls also breed on the Fame Islands, but they 

 mingle with the Lesser Black-backed Gulls and have no 

 special colony of their own. 



No visit to the Fame Islands would be complete until 

 the lofty stacks of rocks where the Guillemots and 

 Kittiwakes breed have been inspected. These curious 

 rocks and their feathered inhabitants are perhaps the 

 most interesting and wonderful sight the famous Fame 

 Islands contain. The group of flat-topped rocks known 

 as the " Pinnacles " stands a little way out from one of 

 the islands, of which it evidently at one time formed a 

 part. The rugged sides are tenanted by Kittiwakes, 

 their nests being made on every suitable ledge and 

 projection ; and the flat table-like tops of the rocks are 



