166 JOTTINGS ABOUT BIRDS. 



relieve the body-rope as much as possible. As is 

 usual in nearly all cliff-climbing, the greatest danger 

 arises from the loose pieces of rock that are liable 

 to fall on the fowler. Accidents are not of very 

 frequent occurrence, and are usually the result of 

 gross carelessness. Donald pointed out the place 

 to me where his own father lost his footing and 

 was dashed from the giddy height into the sea 

 below. I climbed over the exact spot, which 

 seemed to me one of the most unlikely places in 

 the cliffs for such an accident to happen. The 

 great ambition of a St. Kildan is to excel as a 

 cragsman, to become a successful fowler ; in fact, 

 until a man has performed certain feats of daring 

 in the cliffs he never wins a wife ! The man who 

 fails to scale the beetling Stack Biorrach is said 

 never to win a St. Kildan maiden's heart. In 

 former days this proof of daring used to be per- 

 formed before the entire community, but whether 

 this be so now-a-days I know not. 



Sea-birds form the staple food of the people of 

 this remote island, the Puffin, the Gannet, and the 

 Fulmar being the favourites. These birds are 

 caught in enormous numbers and salted down for 

 future use, the feathers and oil being exported. 

 Great numbers of Puffins are simply plucked, split 



