108 OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



question of a few years. His relatives the Edmond- 

 stons, of Baltasound, however, very laudably took 

 up the preservation of the birds, and, building a 

 wooden hut on the most commanding part of the 

 ground which they tenanted, placed a watcher in it 

 every spring to look after them and their eggs. 

 The success of this measure has been so great, 

 that when my brother and I visited the place last 

 year there were no less than thirteen pairs of birds 

 nesting- on the property. The species also has a 

 colony in Foula, where, I understand, effective 

 protection to its members is afforded during 

 their stay upon the island every spring and 

 summer. This is altogether delightful, for the 

 naturalist who visits the breeding-haunt of the 

 Great Skua during the month of June is never 

 likely to forget his experience. There is some- 

 thing so bold and dashing about this fierce 

 buccaneer of the air, that it appeals to the imagina- 

 tion and impresses itself upon the memory in a 

 way that, so far as my experience goes, no other 

 British species can succeed in doing. 



When my brother and I arrived on the rough 

 bent- clad hillside upon which the majority of the 

 birds breed, our friend Mr. Laurence Edmondston, 

 who is worthily carrying out the traditions of his 

 forbears, asked his keeper to show us a number 

 of the nests under his charge. Whilst we were 

 all standing round one, its owners would never 

 dream of attacking, but directly a single indi- 

 vidual only was left, down swooped the birds with 

 terrific fury. I was anxious to find out one or 

 two things, and succeeded in doing so. First of 

 all, I imagined that I was gifted with nerves 

 sufficiently strong to allow my reason to defy 

 my primitive instincts of self-preservation, but the 



