820 



THE NATURE BOOK 



hills thin, filmy wreaths of vapour 

 gathered and thickened as I watched, 

 blotting out the world below and hmiting 

 my horizon to a circle of some thirty 

 yards diameter. However, I went on — 

 cautiously, for a precipice more than a 

 thousand feet yawned not far off, and 

 it was soon impossible to say in which 

 direction. On all sides I could hear the 

 subdued roar of the surf, puffs of wind 

 drove the mist in diametrically opposite 

 directions, and overhead from time to 



dashed down from the cloud in one great 

 sweep, and, reaching the level of my 

 eyes, made straight at me. A powerful, 

 hooked beak and piercing eye, a heavy 

 body lowered to check the downward 

 course, stiff pinions bent with the resistance 

 of the air, clear-edged as though cut out 

 of tin, and rattling as the air rushed 

 through them, black taloned feet ready 

 to strike — that is the picture of the 

 Bonxie photographed in an instant upon 

 the brain. Instinctively I flinched ; and 



YOUNG OF GREAT SKUA AND PARTIAIJ.Y DKVOUKICD HHKKING. 



time I heard the hoarse cry, " Squa, squa," 

 from which the Skua derives its name, 

 but as far as sight was concerned I was 

 the only living creature on the roof of 

 the world. The ground was covered with 

 long, coarse grass, and presently, all 

 unknowing. I approached the spot where 

 a voung Bonxie lay hidden. There was 

 a roar of a body rushing through the air, 

 a great expanse of wing brushed past my 

 head, vanishing into the cloud, and again 

 I was alone. Thus warned, my search 

 became more systematic, and soon I 

 discovered the young bird — fat, yellow 

 and downy — crouching in the grass, and 

 though the light was bad I attempted 

 to take his portrait. Again the parent 



the Skua, less than two yards from my 

 face, altered the angle of its wing and 

 skimmed over my head out of sight. 



That young bird was an exceptionally 

 bad sitter even for a young one. It 

 bit and tore at the grass, at the tripod, 

 or anything that presented itself. The 

 poor light made a time exposure necessary, 

 and all the while the parents kept up the 

 attack, till famiharity began to breed 

 indifference. At length I moved off, and 

 now that my eye knew what to look 

 for, I had little difficulty in discovering 

 other nests, some with eggs, others with 

 young in various stages of growth. Here 

 and tliere lay the body of a puffin or the 

 remains of a herring. One never sees 



