Wanderings of a Naturalist 



by one, tiny lamps appear from the misty spaces of the sea 

 as the various lighthouses send forth their lights to guide 

 the big ships or the sturdy drifters and trawlers at their 

 fishing ? 



And then with the twilight there emerge at such times 

 from the crevices where they had passed the long hours of 

 daylight many of the tribe of the storm petrel. To and fro 

 these small birds flit with swallow-like flight, and from the 

 crannies between the boulders their brooding mates utter 

 curious purring notes, pleasant to the ear and quite unlike 

 those of any other bird. 



Throughout the few hours of night they and the Manx 

 shearwaters have the island to themselves and are the only 

 birds stirring, but by sunrise many puffins and guillemots 

 are arriving at the island with their night's catch of silvery 

 herring fry or sand eels for their hungry youngsters, and all 

 is bustle and activity once more, and the air resounds with 

 many cries. 



With the coming of autumn the summer bird visitors to 

 the island take their departure for the open sea, and except 

 for the storm petrels, which linger on till October and 

 November, the island is left to the buzzard and raven 

 and the lordly peregrine and the wicked greater black 

 back. 



But with the approach of winter a new bird people arrive 

 at the island. Many swift-flying barnacle geese, coming on 

 the north wind from the frozen regions that approach the Pole, 

 and seeing it from afar recognize the island as their winter 

 home. And so with much calling among themselves they 

 glide downwards and together alight on the grassy slopes. 

 They remain throughout the winter on the island, feeding on 

 the pasture that, warmed by the soft Atlantic wind, remains 

 green even when on the mainland the grass is browned and 

 withered by the frosts. Here, then, the wild geese live until 

 April ; until, perhaps, the first days of May, and they may 

 even see the coming of the summer hosts of birds to the 



ii8 



