MANX SHEARWATER. 657 



produce but one egg, which, when fresh laid, is of the most 

 dazzling whiteness, and of peculiarly beautiful texture ; 

 it measures two inches five lines in length, by one inch 

 nine lines in breadth, and is very large for the size of the 

 bird. When you kill a Shearwater by pressure, as I 

 generally did for the sake of her skin, she vomits a most 

 abominable oil, in which float so many particles of brilliant 

 green that it appears of that colour, though the stain it 

 leaves is yellow. The quantity got rid of in this way is 

 sometimes enormous. 



" When the young bird leaves the egg it is covered with 

 greyish-black down, except a stripe along the centre of the 

 breast and belly, which is white. I found a chick very 

 lively in an egg which had been taken from the burrow 

 two days previously to my examining it. My notice was 

 attracted by hearing a little voice in the basket as I sat 

 preparing a skin about midnight. I thought of Asmodeus 

 in the bottle immediately." 



The Manx Shearwater visits the coast of South Wales 

 in considerable numbers in spring. Mr. Gould mentions 

 having received from thence, through the medium of a 

 friend, no less than four dozen of these harmless creatures 

 at one time, with an assurance that as many more would 

 be forwarded if required. These were all evidently cap- 

 tured by the hand, none of them exhibiting any of the 

 usual indications of having been shot. 



The Manx Shearwater is only an occasional visitor to 

 Ireland, and, according to Mr. Thompson, is more rare 

 now than formerly. It breeds every season at St. Kilda 

 and Soa, among the islands of the Hebrides, at Pappa 

 Westra in the Orkneys, and at Foula and Unst in Shet- 

 land, depositing its single egg either in a rabbit-burrow or 

 a crevice in the rock ; but as soon as the young are able 

 to follow the parents, all take to the open sea together. 



VOL. III. U U 



