226 Among the Birds in Northern Shires. 



here in small numbers, also the Oyster- catcher (a 

 noisy, shy bird enough), and not a few Rock Pipits. 

 Upon an outlying reef the Cormorants have their 

 colony a dirty, evil-smelling spot, which apparently 

 by common consent is shunned by all the other species. 

 This islet is low, not more than a dozen feet above 

 the sea in its highest part, sloping to the water's 

 edge on one side. Where the huge nests of the 

 Cormorants are built there is scarcely a trace of any 

 vegetation; everything is more or less covered with 

 droppings, and decaying fish are strewn here and 

 there the whole place smelling most offensively on 

 a calm hot day. These nests are made of sea-weed, 

 stalks of marine plants and turf, and many are lined 

 with green herbage. The three or four long oval 

 eggs are pale-green, but so thickly coated with lime 

 and dirt that all trace of this is hidden until they are 

 washed and well scraped. 



The Fames are also a great breeding resort of 

 the Puffin (called " Coulter-neb " by some people 

 because its beak closely resembles the coulter of a 

 plough), some of the islands being so undermined 

 by their burrows that almost every few steps we 

 sink deep into the soft loamy soil. During the non- 

 breeding season these birds disperse far and wide 

 over the sea, roaming immense distances from their 

 birthplace, but as spring arrives they collect at the 

 old familiar spots to rear their young. Puffins can- 



