ON THE HABITS OF THE MANX SHEARWATER. 373 



old birds cackled and scolded lustily, struggling vigorously to 

 obtain tbeir release. They used their bills also in defence, and 

 inflicted some clean, incised cuts. The only bird that resigned 

 itself placidly to its captors was the solitary male ; doubtless the 

 others felt that they were defending their eggs or young. When 

 released on the grassy slopes, the birds fluttered downwards for 

 many yards with expanded wings, and finally took flight about 

 100 ft. above the sea, all departing in a N.W. direction. 



Remembering a former enquiry as to how this Shearwater 

 progressed on terra firma, the writer was at pains to carry one of 

 the birds to the most level strip of turf that could be found above 

 the sea-shore. Liberated here, the bird was eager to escape, but 

 ran with manifest discomfort ; its legs appeared to be of little 

 use, and progress was accomplished mainly by a vigorous flapping 

 of the pinions. 



One object of the ramble was to decide the downy plumage of 

 the nestling. Specimens had previously been described from 

 this colony of two varieties : (1), having a dark grey patch on the 

 abdomen encircled by white ; (2), having the abdomen pure white. 

 This occasion furnished for comment specimens of the first 

 variety, and also examples intermediate between the two, showing 

 how the two forms merge almost imperceptibly one into the other. 



Crossing from Eigg to Arisaig, on July 5th, only a string of 

 from forty to fifty Shearwaters was observed. They flew to S.E., 

 the wind blowing from N.E. On July 20th, Portree was left for 

 Eigg; weather showery and wind again N.E.* No Shearwaters 

 were seen until within a few miles of Arisaig, when a great 

 number appeared. Sometimes a string of ten filed rapidly past, 

 or five or six alighted together on the water. Their flight was 

 occasionally in an extended line, but oftener in irregular files, and 

 a right merry dance they led over the gloomy waters, which had 

 lost the azure blueness of the previous day. 



Several times the writer passed large flocks of Shearwaters 

 mixed with Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus), the two species 

 clustering together thickly on the waves, evidently feeding on 

 shoals of fish. They thus brought to mind a problem which for 

 some years had puzzled the observer. Some few dissections of 

 adults and young birds had only shown that the oesophagus 



* On July 20th the writer was accompanied by Mr. A. H. Macpherson. 



