VOL. VIII.] HABITS OF FULMAR PETREL. 233 



rather strange, for one would have thought that the 

 bird would have protected her young and left her egg, 

 but I found it very difficult to get near enough to a bird 

 to photograph it if it had a young one in the nest : in 

 fact, I was only able to photograph one such, and that 

 was on my second visit. The native who accompanied 

 me told me that the birds are always difficult to snare 

 while they have young, while if they have eggs it is a 

 comparatively easy matter. They are captured with 

 a small horsehair noose at the end of a long bamboo 

 rod, the noose is slipped over their head, a jerk of the 

 wrist is given, and the bird is pulled up by the climber 

 above. 



The nest is not a large one ; if on the rocks, a few 

 grasses suffice, while on the grassy parts, just a scratching 

 in the ground with grasses added as incubation proceeds 

 forms the home. I made many attempts to photograph 

 the birds, and climbed about for several hours with no 

 success. It was heavy work with a camera and bioscope, 

 a large supply of plates, and many hundred feet of 

 film. I spotted one bird on a sloping piece of rock 

 and made great efforts to reach her ; each time that she 

 showed the slightest signs of moving I kept perfectly 

 still, waited until she settled down, and then again 

 went forward. By doing this I was able to get to within 

 twelve feet of her and fixed up my cameras and pro- 

 ceeded to expose all the film and plates that I desired. 

 I fomid it almost impossible to dislodge her, and dis- 

 covered that she had an egg. Other birds much farther 

 away, with young, left long before I got into range. There 

 were a few other birds here with eggs, and two left their 

 nests in a great hurry owing to the sudden approach 

 of my companion, and I noticed on both visits to this 

 cliff that if a bird left its nest suddenly, it carried its 

 egg with it for several feet. When the bird settles at 

 her nest she seems to be a long time in settling upon her 

 egg. She shuffles about the nest until she has one leg 

 each side of the egg, and then with her beak she will 



