222 THE BIRDS OF OUR RAMBLES. 



those of a few acres in extent, small colonies 

 may be met with. The nests are made on the 

 ground, amongst the crevices of exposed rock, 

 or in holes in the turf, and are of the slightest 

 description most of them little more than hollows 

 in which a few bits of dry herbage have been 

 collected. A few, however, are better made of 

 heather-twigs, turf, and bits of seaweed. The 

 three or four eggs are olive-brown of various 

 shades, spotted and streaked with darker brown 

 and gray. This Gull is most clamorous at the 

 nest ; its harsh note of yak being kept up with 

 irritating persistency all the time of our stay. 

 Only one brood is reared in the year. 



These northern rock-bound coasts are the 

 favoured haunt of several other interesting birds. 

 st. Kiida. Most local of them all is the FULMAR PETREL 

 (Fulmarus glacialis\ whose only great breeding- 

 place is on the awful precipices and sloping, turf- 

 clad cliffs of far-away St. Kilda. A ramble to 

 St. Kilda is not to be lightly thought of; but I 

 cannot pass the Fulmar by without a few brief 

 words of notice. The cliffs here, from May to 

 August, are white with birds, the air is filled with 

 birds, numerous as snowflakes in a winter storm. 

 All the grassy patches and slopes, all the ledges 

 of the cliffs are crowded, packed with Fulmars' 

 nests, every inch of available ground or rock 

 being in most places occupied. The turf-covered 

 cliffs are the favourite nesting-places, for this bird 

 loves a hole in the ground, no matter however 

 shallow, in which to deposit its single white, rough- 

 shelled egg. But there is not grassy cliff enough 

 for a tenth part of the birds that breed here, and 

 the less fortunate have to be content with the 



