in the window which a towel should have occupied, the other 

 had fallen into a basin full of the yolks of eggs which I had 

 been blowing, and was drowned. I regretted much, the fate 

 of a being rendered so interesting, by its very remarkable, 

 wandering, solitary, and harmless life. Before leaving Shet- 

 land I again visited the island of Oxna, and though so late as 

 the 30th of June, they were only just beginning to lay their 

 eggs. In Foula they breed in holes in the cliff, at a great 

 height above the sea ; but here under stones which form the 

 beach, at a depth of three or four feet, or more, according to that 

 of the stones ; as they go down to the earth, beneath them, on 

 whichto lay their eggs. In walkingover the surface I could hear 

 them, very distinctly, singing in a sort of w^arbling chatter, a 

 good deal like Swallows when fluttering above our chimnies, 

 but harsher ; and in this way, by listening attentively, was 

 guided to their retreat, and, after throwing out stones as large 

 as I could lift, on all sides of me, seldom failed in capturing 

 two or three seated on their nests, either under the lowest 

 stone or between two of them. The nests, though of much 

 the same materials as the ground on which they were placed, 

 seemed to have been made with care ; they were of small bits 

 of stalks of plants, and pieces of hard dry earth. Like the 

 rest of the genus, the Stormy Petrel lays invariably one egg 

 only. Mr. Drosier, in a paper in Loudon's Magazitie^ Vol. 

 III., P. 325, says that they lay two, but in this he is decid- 

 edly mistaken. During the day time they remain within 

 their holes ; and though the fishermen are constantly passing 

 over their heads (the beach under which they breed being 

 appropriated for the drying of fish), they are then seldom 

 heard, but towards night become extremely garrulous ; and 

 when most other birds are gone to rest, issue forth in great 

 numbers, spreading themselves far over the surface of the 

 sea, the fishermen then meet with them very numerously ; 

 and though they had not previously seen one, are sure to be 

 surrounded by them upon throwing pieces of fish overboard. 



