42 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Pebkuaey 1, 1896. 



plumage of velvety brown on the back and bead, and 

 white on the under parts, were swimmmg about in com- 

 panies, while here and there amongst them a razorbill was 

 conspicuous by its black shining back and clumsy-looking 

 beak marked with a white vertical stripe. As soon as we 

 were within twenty or thirty yards of these birds, they 

 dived down with the rapidity of lightning, and, swimming 

 under water, reappeared some fifty or sixty yards further on. 



Unlike divers such as the cormorants and the crested 

 grebe, the guillemot and razorbill do not jump out of the 

 water as they dive, but, putting down the head and lifting 

 up legs and tail, they go down perpendicularly. Moreover, 

 so quickly is this action performed that, when fired at 

 from a distance of about thirty yards, the bird will often 

 dive at the flash of the gun, and evade the sliot which 

 strikes the very spot on which it was swimming but a 

 moment before. Under water these birds can travel with 

 considerable rapidity, both feet and wings being used as 

 propellers. Their movements in a glass tank afford an 

 interesting and beautiful sight. When a fish is thrown 

 into the water, the guillemot immediately dives down, and 

 as it proceeds under the water with slow but graceful beats 

 of the wing, a track of silvery air bubbles, like a chain of 

 glistening pearls, is left in its wake. 



But to return to the Bass. When within a hundred 

 yards or so of the rock, we came upon a number of that 

 strange-looking bird, the puffin or sea parrot. Unlike the 

 guillemots, they did not dive at our approach, but rose 

 from the water and flew away with a short quick flight. 

 We did not land immediately on reaching the island, but 

 rowed round it, and the sight from this point of view was 

 simply marvellous. Thousands upon thousands of gannets, 

 and scores of kittiwake gulls, were wheeling about in the 

 air uttering the most weird and discordant cries, while 

 every available ledge from about sixty feet above the sea 

 to the top of the rock was occupied by gannets, guillemots, 

 razorbills or kittiwakes. The more one gazed at this ever- 

 moving mass of birds the more wonderful and awe-inspiring 

 did it appear. It has been estimated that about five 

 thousand pairs of gannets nest on the Bass alone. 



As we rowed round, a large opening in the rock nttracted 

 our attention, and we were told that this was the entrance 



Flft. 2. — Uerring Gull's Nest and Eggs. 



to a tunnel about thirty feet high and one hundred and 

 seventy yards in length, which passes right under the 

 island from east to west. A cormorant was sitting on a 

 ledge at the entrance, and several of these birds had built 

 their nests mside the cave. 



Very little swell or rough water makes it a difficult task 

 to land on the Bass, in consequence of the great rise and 

 fall of the sea. No difiiculty, however, was experienced 



on this beautiful May day. On landing we soon climbed 

 up to the entrance of the ruined castle, and just as we were 

 about to step in, an eider duck flew off her lovely nest of 

 dun-coloured down, imbedded in which were five dull 

 green eggs, .lust within the low and narrow doorway 



Uannot dctrudiu;! 



(From ail instantaneous photograph.) 



leading into the roofless old castle we were sui-prised to 

 find, in the shadow of the walls, another eider duck's nest, 

 upon which the female bird was sitting. The bird's neck 

 was bent back, and her head, resting between her folded 

 .vings, seemed to rise straight out of the middle of her 

 back. This bird proved exceedingh' tame, allowing a 

 cautious approach to within five feet of the nest, and then 

 remaining perfectly still while the Kodak was brought to 

 bear on her (Fig. 1). The eider duck was not the only 

 inhabitant of the castle. Every now and then a puffin 

 flew in or out of a hole in the old walls. I rashly attempted 

 to climb up to one of the holes, some twenty-five feet from 

 the ground. The walls of the castle are formed of large 

 blocks of sandstone built up together with mortar, but the 

 mortar having fallen away, the projecting stones form an 

 easy foothold. I had reached the hole from which a puffin 

 liad flown out, and was leaning over to get its single white 

 egg, when the great stone to which I was clinging suddenly 

 gave way, and, just grazing my head, crashed to the ground. 

 By clutching at a firmly-set stone below, I managed to 

 escape falling upon the jagged rocks on which the wall 

 was built. 



It was very strange to find on this sea-girt rod; a homely 

 blackbird, sitting upon a nest of four eggs. There being 

 no tree or shrub in which the birds could build their nest, 

 they had placed it in a chink of the castle wall. Whether 

 they foraged for food on the rock, or flew acro5s to the 

 mainland, I do not know. As we mounted up the grassy 

 slope to the top of the rock, the white scut of a rabbit 

 every now and then appeared ; and the only bird found 

 breeding on this part of the island was the herring gull. 



