1 84 HILLSIDE, ROCK, AND DALE 



rose and was soon lost among the crowd circling above. 

 The lesser black-backed gull will guard its own eggs 

 with great courage, but if an opportunity offers it will 

 show no scruples in taking those in the nest nearest 

 to its own. This island is covered on its higher 

 ground with sea-campion, and among this most of 

 the gulls have their nests ; but many make their 

 nests on the rocks. 



If we trespass on their breeding quarters the sitting 

 birds fly up in hundreds, when they form a striking 

 contrast to the graceful terns. Still, their more 

 heavy flight and less graceful movements are very 

 attractive, and their great breadth of wing and the 

 number flying around seem to hide the sky more 

 effectively than the smaller sea-swallows. The nests 

 built in the fissures of rocks are much more sub- 

 stantial than those made amongst the vegetation ; in 

 the latter place only a slight trodden-down space is 

 used to lay the eggs in. I tried without much 

 success to obtain photographs with my electrical ap- 

 paratus of gulls sitting, but found that it was easier 

 to secure pictures of them standing near their nests. 

 The birds seem sufficiently inquisitive to prompt them 

 to examine anything strange that is put up among 

 their nests. We set our cameras and hid ourselves 

 in the ruins of a small stone tower, and waited for 

 more than an hour for some of the birds to return; but 

 although several came up to our shelter and cautiously 



