THE PUFFIN 265 



chosen, in which the birds establish their busy colony. The 

 nest is placed at the end of a long burrow, something like a 

 rabbit -hole. This burrow is generally made by the birds 

 themselves, either in the soft peaty soil of low islands as for 

 instance at the Femes, or in the ground at the top of the 

 cliffs as at Flamborough, the Bass Rock, and in the Hebrides. 

 Other localities, however, are often chosen. At the Bass a 

 colony of Puffins have established themselves in the walls of 

 an old fortress overhanging the sea; and at St. Kilda I have 

 often taken its eggs from crannies in the cliffs, or from under 

 large masses of fallen rock on the shore. There is also 

 another breeding-place of these birds at St. Kilda in a sandy 

 bank above the sea, in just such another situation as we 

 should expect to find a colony of Sand Martins. The colony 

 at the Feme Islands is not nearly so interesting as some 

 others which I have visited. Few birds are to be seen here, 

 but the ground under foot is undermined witli their burrows, 

 which are constantly falling in as you wander over the ground 

 knee-deep in sea-campion and coarse grass. 



But St. Kilda is the Puffin's paradise ! All other breeding- 

 places of this bird that I have seen sink into utter in- 

 significance when compared with the vast colonies there. 

 Every available place is burrowed and honeycombed with 

 their holes, arid the sea is often black with birds. The small 

 island of Doon and the cliff of Connacher are their head- 

 quarters. The island is so undermined with Puffins' burrows 

 that there is scarcely room for all the birds, and many of 

 them have taken refuge under the large masses of rock lying 

 on the steep grass-covered hillsides that slope precipitously 

 to the sea, whilst others quarrel with the Piazorbills in the 

 cliffs. When I landed on this magnificently bold rugged 

 island, whose peaks, like dismantled fortresses, rise six hun- 

 dred feet or more from the water, the Puffins in a dense, 

 whirling, bewildering throng swept out from their holes and 



