The Zoologist— March, 1867. 615 



me to shoot a shag in the pale brown plumage, promising that he 

 would skin it, a vow he did not fulfil. Whilst he and Francis ascended 

 the rocks in an unsuccessful search for a black guillemot's nest, 

 James landed me on some detached rocks to look for the nest of a 

 great blackbacked gull, which he said bred there, but which I did not 

 find, nor did I see the birds. Neither did I discover the lesser black- 

 backed gull anywhere round the Horn, though Thompson enumerates 

 it in his list of birds breeding there, as well as the common gull 

 {Larus canus), which I also failed to see or hear of; indeed I never 

 expected to do so. Mr. R. Warren, of Ballina, says there is a 

 breeding-station of this bird at Lough Talt in the Ox Mountains, Co. 

 Sligo. 



James returned to pick me up, having taken one egg of the rock 

 pigeon, and my friend had also obtained two more, making four in all, 

 with which we were obliged to be contented, as it was getting late in 

 the season for these birds, which do not, 1 think, rear more than one 

 brood, though, if robbed, they probably lay again. However, on this 

 point I am by no means certain. Further on was a large colony of 

 cormorants, which R. and F. disturbed, and, after taking as many eggs 

 as they could carry, amused themselves with pelting us with the 

 superfluous ones. Soon after R. had the satisfaction of taking his first 

 shag's nest, with four eggs, from a ledge in a cave, which the natives 

 declared was inaccessible, but which I was perfectly sure was not so ; 

 so insisted that one of us should try. R., who had never taken a 

 shag's nest, was anxious to go up, for which he was the more fitted as 

 he was in a state of semi-nudity — his usual condition when out egging. 

 Nothing worse than a clucking could possibly happen to him ; so up 

 he went, assisted by the blade of an oar shoved into his fork, and 

 succeeded in bringing down the eggs without damage. 



Returning homewards, with my last two charges of shot, I managed 

 to miss a right and left at a pair of black guillemots, startliug with the 

 report a flight of small birds which had been feediug on the rocks 

 close by, and which I at once recognized as purple sandpipers in full 

 breeding plumage ; and here I was without a shot left, when, to my 

 great delight, R. — feeling mechanically in his pockets — discovered a 

 double charger which he handed to me, and with which I managed to 

 secure one very fine specimen ; the others were too much cut about 

 for preserving, as the shot was frightfully large. It was greasy work 

 skinning my bird, for the fat fairly oozed through the shot-holes, 

 reminding me of my experiences with dotterel (Charadrius morinellus) 



