36 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



Rabbits occur on the mountain, and, when not shot 

 down, in the fields below. In the shallow burrows 

 laboriously worked in the rocky ground there are no 

 puffins, but there are Manx shearwaters. There are 

 not, however, rabbit-burrows enough for the shearwater 

 colony, and by far the greater number of the birds lay 

 their single white egg in some deep crack or hole amongst 

 the rocks. In these rocky holes we handled several birds, 

 and brought out one blue-grey baby of but a few days 

 old; the mother bird, after biting furiously with the long, 

 thin, hook- tipped bill, flew when released straight out 

 to sea, leaving her light-dazzled infant to scramble back 

 as best it could into its dusky retreat. The shearwater, 

 according to popular ideas, cannot rise from the ground 

 without difficulty; it is true that they do not stand up- 

 right, in the position in which they are often depicted 

 and always stuffed, but resting on the tarsus and with 

 breast well down the bird spread its long wings, flopped 

 down the slope, and in a few seconds was clear of the 

 cliff. The shearwater, for many months in the year 

 pelagic, is thoroughly at home on the wing. 



When, in the evening, we were sitting in the cosy kitchen 

 of the farm, discussing with our genial host and hostess 

 the doings of Bardsey " and the adjacent islands of Great 

 Britain and Ireland " we learnt that the shearwaters 

 were most lively during a heavy rainfall or in fog. Rain 

 came on that night, heavy rain, and before we retired to 

 bed we enjoyed the shearwater concert. The birds we 

 had handled had had little to say, only a few guttural 

 grumblings; but this was a treat we had hardly expected. 

 We had read of the strange voice of this strange bird, 

 and of its habit of calling at night; we had heard vivid 

 descriptions from lighthouse keepers; we had formed no 

 mental picture of the reality. As the birds came flying 

 swiftly round the hill, passing u/iseen in the darkness, 



