Mr Evans on the Birds of the Island of Eigg. 447 



more feet in length, and wide enough to admit the arm with 

 ease, and had all the appearance of having been excavated 

 by rabbits, of which I saw a number. The soil not being 

 deep, the burrows never penetrated, in any part of their 

 course, far from the surface; and though the ground was 

 very hard, owing to a more than usual amount of dry 

 weather, I managed with the aid of my fingers and a stout 

 walking-stick to dig up about a dozen nests, and found four 

 eggs (the bird lays but one), two fresh and two highly in- 

 cubated. All the other burrows contained very young birds, 

 covered with a delightfully soft lightish slate-coloured down. 

 A few twigs of heather and withered blades of grass were all 

 I could find in the way of lining to the nests. One of the 

 parent birds, sometimes the female and sometimes the male, 

 was in each burrow. 



The adults used their bills freely when caught and handled, 

 but I never heard them utter any sound ; though the young 

 ones, when brought into the light of day, indicated their 

 dislike to it by a feeble cheep. I never saw the birds coming 

 to or leaving their nests : this they appear to do entirely 

 under cover of night, or in the dusk of the evening and 

 morning ; and I was sorry that a heavy fall of rain on the 

 evening I had arranged to spend in their haunts prevented 

 me verifying this part of their habits. The old man, who, 

 on the occasion of my first visit to the colony, acted as guide, 

 and directed my steps among the cliffs, insisted that it was 

 needless to let the birds off in the daytime, as they would 

 certainly be at once attacked by gulls or other enemies, and 

 brought to an untimely end. Suspecting, however, that his 

 fondness for them in a cooked state had prevented him from 

 ever trying the experiment, I drew one out of its burrow and 

 threw it into the air, when it instantly spread its wings and 

 sped seawards without hindrance of any kind. From the 

 mouths of a pair, which the guide reserved for the pot, a 

 beautiful green fluid exuded. 



82. Puffinus major (Great Shearwater). — Mr Gray in his 

 note in the Society's Proceedings for 1877-78, already referred 

 to, states that "one or two larger and much darker birds 

 were observed in the flock " (of P. angloritm), which he " took 



