236 Fortune: The Birds of the Farne Islands. 
the visitor to stroke them upon the nest. Should a duck leave 
her nest in a hurry without covering the eggs with down, as 
they sometimes do, it is a bad look out when she returns, as it 
is a certainty that they will have been carried off by the Lesser 
Black Back Gulls. What astonishes me is that the Gulls have 
never yet tumbled to the fact that beneath the heap of down 
reposes a tempting array of dainties which they know well. 
how to appreciate. The male Eider, in his striking plumage, 
is a great contrast to the sober attire of the female; he keeps 
well out to sea, and rarely comes on land, but should the female 
leave her nest for a little relaxation he is speedily in attendance. 
Puffins are also very numerous on one or two of the islands. 
Upon Staple Island the soil is riddled with their burrows, so 
much so that it is almost impossible to walk over the surface 
without ones foot sinking into a Puffin’s burrow. The Lesser 
Black Back Gulls cannot get at the Puffin’s eggs, as they are’ 
deposited some distance in the burrow, but when the young 
come forth they play havoc amongst them. The Puffin is a 
very quaint fellow, with a grotesque bill, the most gaudy 
portion of which he sheds during the winter months. 
Oystercatchers are fairly common, and may be seen on most 
of the islands. On the Staple Island there are the remains of 
an old lighthouse, on the top of the old wall of which a pair 
of Oystercatchers regularly place their nest. 
Ringed Plovers nest on the shingly beeches of some of the 
islands, but they are not abundant. 
Cormorants were nesting in two colonies on the Wamses 
and on the Harcar; the Megstone, their former abode, being 
deserted by them owing to their nests being continually washed 
away by the sea. I learn, however, that a few pairs returned. 
to the Megstone later in the season, and were able to rear 
their broods. Unfortunately, upon the Wamses and Harcar 
are large numbers of Gulls. When visitors approach the 
islands the Cormorants take flight. Immediately they go the- 
Gulls fly to their nests and clear out every egg in the nests in no 
time. At the first visit paid by Mr. Booth and myself, in June 
1906, we thought it would be an impossibility for the Cormorants 
to rear any young; we were therefore greatly delighted upon 
paying a second visit in early August to find young birds in 
almost every nest. A period of bad weather, during which 
visitors could not land upon these islands, had allowed the birds 
to stick close to their nests, thus protecting their eggs from the 
ravages of the Gulls. 
Naturalist, 
