250 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



nearly ready to take to the sea, I saw one nest 

 containing three perfectly fresh eggs. 



We were much amused to see two or three 

 Lesser Black- backed Gulls, which may not inaptly 

 be described as the Carrion Crows of the sea, take 

 advantage of the enforced absence of the old 

 Cormorants, and improve the shining hour by 

 alighting close to us and picking up such uncon- 

 sidered whiting and eels as had been disgorged by 

 their terrified offspring. 



Our full-page illustration opposite was obtained 

 under somewhat peculiar circumstances (detailed in 

 Chapter XI.) on an isolated rock, curiously enough, 

 also known as the Megstone, near the Saltees. 



At the Knoxes and Inner Wide Opens, two 

 islands of the Fame group, connected at low 

 water by a ridge of boulders and shingle, dotted 

 all over with bags of cement from a ship wrecked 

 here years ago, the Sandwich, Arctic, and Common 

 Terns breed in a vast colony, which, upon being 

 visited, deafens the ear, dazzles the sight, and 

 paints the clothes. Terns, to my mind, are the 

 daintiest sea-birds in existence, and by far the 

 most wayward. 



When the colony is approached, its members all 

 rise into the air like a cloud, and after twirling and 

 twisting, screaming and fighting, for some time, 

 they are all of a sudden stricken with what appears to 

 be a kind of momentary madness. Right in the middle 

 of one of their most graceful evolutions and noisiest of 

 protests, they become instantly silent, and dart with 

 tremendous rapidity to right and left of the line 

 of flight the majority of them were pursuing when 

 overtaken by the strange impulse. The swish of 

 their long sword-like wings upon these occasions 

 rends the air and startles the ear with a bewildering 



