MANX SHEARWATER. 423 



Shearwaters I dissected had been feeding on sorrel, and the stomachs 

 contained a large quantity of dark oily matter, much darker than that 

 found in the Fulmars. Both birds assist in making the burrows, and the 

 holes vary a good deal in depth and in straightness." 



There are several breeding-places of this bird in the Mediterranean. I 

 am indebted to Capt. Beecher for an interesting account of his visit to the 

 island of Fifla, a limestone rock about two and a half miles south-west 

 of Malta, where a small colony of Manx Shearwaters were breeding at 

 the base of the cliff, amongst a pile of blocks of stone of all sizes. A 

 favourite situation was behind the vegetation which covered the face of 

 the overhanging rock. Other nests were in the hollows formed by the 

 fallen debris. There was seldom any nest, rarely even a slight hollow, but 

 occasionally the egg was placed upon a few dry stalks. Two birds which 

 he caught on the eggs proved to be males, and in many of the holes both 

 parents were found. One or other of the birds always remains to guard 

 the egg from the attacks of a black lizard. Eggs taken on the 5th of 

 April were slightly incubated, those on the 12th of April much more so. 



The Manx Shearwater breeds in similar situations on the small islands 

 round the coast of Corsica (Whitehead, ' Ibis/ 1885, p. 48), the egg being 

 " placed under piles of large rocks which had fallen from the cliff above, 

 only a few feet from high-water mark." Another breeding-place is the 

 Cyclades (Kriiper, Journ. Orn. 1863, p. 234), where they breed in an 

 almost precisely similar situation. 



The Manx Shearwater only lays one egg, which is much smoother in 

 texture and more glossy than that of the Fulmar, and pure white in colour, 

 and varies in length from 2'5 to 2'3 inch, and in breadth from 1*75 to 

 1'55 inch. 



The eggs are laid in St. Kilda early in May, and fresh ones may be 

 obtained from that date onwards till the middle of June. If the first egg 

 be taken it is said that the female will lay another in the course of a few 

 weeks, either in the same hole or in another made close to it. Both birds 

 assist in the duties of incubation, and the young remain in the nest till 

 able to fly. From the oily nature of their food the young birds become 

 excessively fat, and are then prized by the natives as articles of food. Except 

 during the breeding-season, the Manx Shearwater is rarely observed on the 

 land. It wanders far and wide over the surface of the ocean, straying in 

 winter far from its accustomed summer haunts, picking up its food from the 

 Av;ives, and resting, and even sleeping, on the sea. 



One of the most interesting sights in the Levant and on the Bosphorus 

 is to watch the long strings of Shearwaters flying to and fro between their 

 breeding-places and their feeding-grounds. There are two species, a large 

 and a small one. The large one, which is about the size of the Great 

 Shearwater, is the Mediterranean Shearwater (Puffinus kuhli) : the smaller 



