MANX SHEARWATER. 633 



as you may ascertain by the odour which issues from the 

 first burrow you look into among the ferns. As soon as 

 the sun is down you will see a little party of five or six 

 flitting silently across the sound, or steering out to sea. 

 The latest fishers from the colony of Terns are coming 

 home from the sandy shallows, five or six miles away, with 

 their throats and beaks crammed with Lance-fish, when 

 the Shearwaters begin to wake. You will not see them 

 come out of their holes ; you first catch sight of them 

 skimming round the corner of a rock close to the water. 

 Perhaps they will have a great gathering, such as I en- 

 countered one evening in * Smith's Sound. 1 There was a 

 congregation of at least three hundred, in the middle of 

 the tide-way, washing, dipping, preening feathers, and 

 stretching wings, evidently just awake, and making ready 

 for the night^s diversion. As I wanted a few specimens 

 more than I had dug out of the burrows, I ran my boat 

 well up to them, and when they rose, got as many as I 

 wished, besides a few unfortunate cripples who were only 

 winged, and proved, by their agility in swimming and 

 diving, a good deal too much for my boatmen. I think a 

 good dog would have no chance with them. They allowed 

 me to come quite close. They sit low in the water ; they 

 make no noise when disturbed, though in their holes they 

 are eloquent enough, the Scillonian synonyms of Crew and 

 Cockaihodon being derived from the guttural melodies they 

 pour forth as the spade approaches the end in which the 

 egg is deposited. I once caught a pair in one burrow who 

 were crooning a duet of this kind before we commenced 

 operations. I presume they were in the honey-moon, as 

 there was no egg. It is frequently deposited on the fine 

 sandy soil without any preparation, though generally there 

 is a slight accumulation of fern leaves and old stems. They 

 produce but one egg, which, when fresh laid, is of the most 



