128 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



of the colony. The Cormorants live by themselves, and 

 never mingle with the Gulls and Terns. Their nests are 

 placed close together and made of sticks and weeds, and 

 the eggs, four or five in number, are pale green, but 

 usually covered with a thick coating of chalk easily 

 removed, by the way, with a penknife. Most of the 

 dark-looking Cormorants hurry off to sea long before we 

 land, and the remainder fly away directly our boat 

 scrapes against the rocks. It is difficult to walk amongst 

 the nests without treading on eggs, so closely are they 

 built together : and the rocks are exceedingly slippery 

 from the decaying fish and other refuse which covers the 

 place. 



Vast numbers of the eggs of the several species of sea- 

 fowl that breed at the Fame Islands are annually taken 

 for food, but the birds are eventually left in peace to 

 rear their broods after being plundered several times. 

 It is to be hoped that the egg harvest will be more 

 judiciously managed by those authorized to collect it, 

 for the birds have decreased in numbers of late years. 

 The possibility of these islands being deserted by the 

 sea-fowl which have bred upon them for ages, is a 

 calamity which would be most deeply regretted by 

 every lover of birds. 



