184 MUTTON BIRDS 



wretched twig was dropped ; it had not even been 

 required.* 



Although most of the shags had built, many 

 were still attempting to do so, yet, during the 

 hours spent on the rock ; a single bird only, was 

 noticed flying in laden with seaweed, and the 

 habits of robbery and theft so engrained in the 

 breed, must cause a considerable wastage in eggs 

 and young life. 



The individual birds photographed varied in 

 temperament. Many were almost regardless of 

 the camera, and all permitted a close approach, 

 provided it was slow and circumspect. On two 

 occasions, however, once when McLean slipped, 

 and once when the focussing cloth was blown 

 from the camera, sudden panic seized a huge 

 portion of the sitting birds. A stampede ensued, 

 terrible to contemplate, and during which the 

 young and eggs were trodden by dozens of huge 

 webbed feet, and cuffed and buffeted by multi- 

 tudinous wings. The old birds, however, almost 

 at once returned, and, to my great relief, neither 

 eggs nor chicks seemed to have been dislodged 

 by the brief tornado. 



Only one or two in a hundred nesting birds, 

 showed any attempt at a crest, and one of these 

 the best example we photographed, showing 

 the transverse bar of a few isolated feathers 

 across the head. On the gular patch of another 



*At my age a man can hardly deteriorate, he has reached 

 the limit, but McLean is young still. I could never again have 

 taken him to this rock. My supply of underclothing was limited, 

 I could not have afforded it. At our headquarters at Half Moon 

 Bay his bedroom was next to mine; and another day amongst 

 these Shags would have loosened every fibre in his moral nature. 

 He would have pillaged my portmanteau without a thought of 

 wrong. 



