io8 WILD LIFE AT HOME. 



breeze of wind, such as was blowing when the lower 

 picture on the previous page was made. 



The great skua, or bonxie as it is called in the 

 Shetlands, breeds on Foula, where it is protected 

 by Mrs. Traill, and also in Unst, where our friend, 

 Mr. Laurence Edmondston, is carrying out the 

 traditions of his worthy forefathers, and earning 

 the gratitude of all British bird-lovers by keeping 

 a watcher at his own expense on the top of Herma 

 Ness to look specially after the nests and eggs of 

 the thirteen or fourteen pairs of birds breeding on 

 his property. 



The bonxie makes a great impression upon the 

 naturalist when he beholds it for the first time. 



Upon the occasion of our visit, Mr. Edmondston 

 kindly accompanied us to Herma Ness, and when 

 we drew near to the first nest, which his watcher 

 showed us, a large brown bird began to hover over 

 our heads and make stoops at the one happening 

 to be nearest to her charge. When she was joined 

 by her mate she became much bolder and attacked 

 with great fierceness, but invariably from behind and 

 with her head to the wind. Directly she passed 

 over the intruder, she rose gracefully in the air 

 with outstretched pinions, and wheeling round to 

 leeward made ready for another descent. She 

 generally appeared to make her terrific downward 

 rushes from an altitude of about two hundred feet 

 and a distance of seventy or eighty yards, and when 

 she got close up to her enemy dropped both feet 



