258 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



breeding station in a wild, shrieking mass. Pre- 

 sently a Lesser Black-backed Gull would rise and 

 take his departure, followed by a host of angry 

 but quite helpless Terns. Peregrine Falcons occa- 

 sionally pay the Fame Islands a visit, and fly 

 away with whatever they desire without let or 

 hindrance. 



The mortality amongst sea-birds of all kinds, 

 reckoning the loss of eggs and young ones, from 

 purely natural causes alone, must be very great in 

 the course of a season. We saw a great number of 

 young Terns lying dead everywhere upon their 

 islands, and Watcher Darling told us that two years 

 ago very few Arctic or Common Terns got away. 

 He picked up several dead ones with sand-eels in 

 their bills, and concluded that there was no small 

 fry for them, and that the eels, although the natural 

 diet of Sandwich Terns, were too large for the 

 young of the smaller species to swallow. 



There are now a great number of Eiders on 

 the Fames. I counted thirty-four barren ducks one 

 day all together in a little bay, and seventeen 

 drakes in another. As soon as the females begin 

 to sit the males leave them, and the glories of their 

 breeding plumage commence to fade. Some of the 

 ducks are wonderfully tame whilst brooding, and 

 will allow themselves to be stroked upon the back 

 without appearing in the least disturbed by the 

 attentions of the intruder. The Duck which made 

 her nest for so many years in succession at the 

 foot of St. Cuthbert's Tower, and was recognisable 

 by a peculiar white spot on the back of her head, 

 did not put in an appearance this year, and the 

 watchers concluded that she had been shot by some 

 gunner during the winter. I saw one nest with 

 eight eggs in it, and Darling informed me that he 



