120 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



or so before the bottom of the gallery was reached, and the 

 nest was situated about two feet from the entrance. The 

 majority of the rabbit-holes were in peat, and consequently by 

 no means dry, though, perhaps, warm enough habitations. 

 The accompanying photograph shows the entrance of one 

 of these " pop-hole " Starling nests. The other normal nesting 

 site on these islands was under loose stones on the shore, the 

 sort of situation one would expect to find Storm- Petrels 

 breeding in. The mound of stones shown in the photograph 

 was about three feet high and at the bottom of a low cliff, and 

 only distant a couple of yards from high-water mark. It was 

 tenanted by a numerous colony of Starlings whose nests were 



Starling's nesting site on the sea-shore. Lambholm, Orkney. 



easily found by turning back the stones, and it was curious to 

 see and hear the young birds scrambling away through the 

 crannies like so many rats, as one walked over the mound. 

 Unfortunately at the time of my visit, the nests all contained 

 young birds nearly ready to fly, so that although I was able 

 to " ring" a certain number, I was unable to secure a photo- 

 graph of a nest with eggs. Another illustration of a normal 

 nesting site for a given locality is the utilisation of the piles 

 of empty fish-boxes by the fishermen's houses along the coast 

 of Dungeness in Kent. 



N. F. Ticehurst. 



