74 OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



we found a small colony breeding to the right 

 of the highest peak. Their burrows were made 

 in the dark half-peat, half-vegetable-looking mould, 

 which we had no difficulty in lifting back in 

 great chunks so as to show the egg lying at 

 the end of the tunnel, and then replacing after 

 the photograph had been taken. In about two- 

 thirds of the nests which I examined the egg 

 was lying on a few blades of dead grass, and in 

 the remainder upon nothing at all but the bare 

 earth. 



The Fork-Tailed Petrel breeds at several places 

 in the Outer Hebrides, and on some of the islands 

 off the Irish coast, where it is to be hoped that 

 the collector will not quite extirpate it. An 

 unfortunate circumstance for the species at St. 

 Kilda is that dealers have opened the eyes of the 

 natives to the commercial value of its eggs. These 

 are white, speckled round the larger end with 

 minute rust-coloured and greyish-brown spots. 

 Their larger size than that laid by the Stormy 

 Petrel, and the presence of the close-sitting 

 parent bird, readily identify them. 



PETREL, FULMAR. 



I HAD many excellent opportunities of studying 

 this bird whilst staying in St. Kilda some years 

 ago, and became greatly in love with its beautiful 

 flight and gentle manners. Upon approaching its 

 breeding-haunt the naturalist is soon attracted by 

 the Fulmar Petrel's graceful gliding flight and 

 almost abandonment of wing-flapping, which apart 

 from other differences distinguish it at once from 



