20 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



Kittiwakes we found by far the commonest birds of 

 Homo. They were nesting in colonies of many hundreds. 

 A few had already hatched, and I picked up a little one 



dead. 



< Next in number came, I thought, herring gulls and 

 razor-bills, though puffins ran these close. We counted 

 five nests i if the common cormorant, and three of the shag 

 — and these had young, but the others only eggs. 



Homo was a very good place for observing birds. We 

 came to a corner and peeped over, and there below us 

 was such a round of nursery goings-on. For we took 

 the cliff at an angle, so that the whole thing lay open 

 like a book. 



In and out of the holes, not six feet from our faces, the 

 consequential big-nosed puffins ran ; while herring gulls 

 and kittiwakes were there in plenty with guillemots 

 (lioth black and Briinnich's) and razor-bills sitting up on 

 end. We were rather a careless party; but could I have 

 crept up there by myself, I should have had a fine time 

 indeed. Nothing would have seen me except a soaring 

 gull straight overhead, for I would have lain as flat as a 

 puff-adder, my very nose hidden ; only just two eyes 

 spying through a tuft of grass. 



Upon Homo also I saw three pairs of white wag- 

 tails, an odd raven, the meadow, rock, and red-throated 

 pipits, and the snow-bunting. Very handsome the cock 

 snow-buntings looked in their black-and-white dress, and 

 tiny were singing sweetly. The island held several 



