AMONG THE BIRDS IN SUMMER. 113 



never fails to make its appearance at this time of 

 the year, is the Missel-thrush. The first and 

 second broods quit the coppices and spinneys, 

 and other districts where they were bred, and in 

 small flocks repair to the grass-fields. They are 

 excessively wary, and their rasping cries make 

 the fields ring again. Now the Blackbirds and 

 Thrushes frequent the gardens to feed upon the 

 rich store of fruit, the latter birds also being very 

 often flushed from cabbage beds, where they go 

 to search for snails. 



During our spring rambles we made the 

 acquaintance of the sea-birds at several of their 

 famous breeding - places. Now let us borrow 

 Icarian wings, and visit the noble bird bazaars 

 of St. Kilda, a group of small Atlantic islands 

 some fifty miles from the most westerly of the 

 Hebrides. The only important breeding-place in 

 the British seas of the Fulmar Petrel is situated 

 here, and the main colony of these birds stands 

 unrivalled in its wonderful interest. It is situated 

 on the face of a stupendous precipice which rises 

 some twelve hundred feet sheer up from the 

 restless Atlantic. The birds are now busy bring- 

 ing up their young. Their single egg is laid 

 between the i5th of May and the 5th of June, in 

 a slight apology for a nest, and is white, rough, 

 and chalky in texture, and smells very strongly. 

 What pen can do justice to such a noble scene as 

 this ? The entire face of this awful cliff is one 

 moving mass of birds. On every little grassy 



