264 



WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



We visited the far-famed Pinnacles again, and 

 found them crowded as thickly as ever with 

 Guillemots, many of which evidently had young 

 ones, for they were edging their way into the 

 seething noisy mass with sand-eels in their bills. 

 Below them were a number of Kittiwakes, and their 

 downy young ones, all of which were panting and 



gaping from the oppres- 

 sive heat. 



Our pictures of the 

 Guillemots and Kitti- 

 wakes were both ob- 

 tained on the Saltee 

 Islands. 



A few land birds 

 occasionally breed upon 

 the islands. Some years 

 back a Linnet made its 

 nest in a small elder- 

 berry tree growing in 

 the Fame lighthouse- 

 keeper's garden, and a 

 Blackbird amongst some 

 rhubarb stalks. A 

 member of the last 



species also made its nest not long ago in a hemlock 

 plant growing on the Wide Opens. 



A number of Shelducks breed amongst the 

 sand dunes, between Sea Houses and Bamborough 

 Castle on the mainland, and the fishermen look 

 upon them as the most artful birds in existence. 

 As an instance of a Shelduck's cunning, they assert 

 that when she leaves her nesting burrow she drags 

 her tail upon the ground, so as to obliterate her 

 footprints in the sand, and thus save her nest from 

 discovery and molestation. 



YOUNG BLACK GUILLEMOT. 



