55G Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



being of some extent, is not likely to drive the puffins to 

 seek pastures new for some time. There being no rabbits on 

 the island, the puffins dig all the burrows themselves. In 

 one of the burrows near the cliff edge I was somewhat sur- 

 prised to find a razorbill's Qgg. 



53. Eazorbill (Alca torda), (Wilkie). — As elseM'here, this 

 bird seems to be much less numerous than the guillemot at 

 their common breeding haunts. The razorbill is usually said 

 to lay rather apart from the guillemot, but on the Ramna 

 Stacks this is not so, probably owing to the guillemots being 

 forced to adopt the nesting habits of the razorbill. 



54. Cormorant [Phalacro cor ax carlo), Loering, Scarf (adult), 

 Brongie (young). — The cormorant is not very common in 

 Shetland. A few may be seen at many places, but in very 

 small numbers compared with the shag. On the Fiedeland 

 stack I visited, there were only three pairs of this bird 

 among a considerable number of shags. The eggs are as a 

 rule larger than the shag's, but often very slightly so, excep- 

 tionally large shags equalling them in size. They breed 

 early, even in Shetland. A man showed me three young 

 ones on the 31st May, which he had taken from the Fiede- 

 land stacks. They were then fully a week old, which would 

 place the laying about the middle of April. 



^b. Shag (Phalacrocorax cristatus), (Scarf, Scart). — An 

 exceedingly abundant species, and one which does not con- 

 fine itself to large colonies, but may be found breeding 

 wherever the rocks are pretty high and overhang deep water. 

 They are, like the cormorants, early breeders. Several nests 

 found on 31st May, and some days earlier, contained young. 

 The number of eggs laid by these birds seems still a debat- 

 able subject, some writers putting the number at five or six. 

 As far as my experience goes, and I saw into a great many 

 nests, and counted the eggs through a glass, — when I could 

 persuade the old bird to get off, — the number never exceeded 

 three, either in the case of the shag or cormorant. Two 

 eggs, evidently sat upon, were sometimes met with, but not 

 often. The nesting-places of these birds are exceedingly 

 filthy, and smell abominably; but the nests themselves, until 

 the young are hatched, I have always found quite clean. 



