next thing was, clearly, to ascertain where and when they bred. Though not 

 present in great numbers, they could not be described as rare; and before long we 

 managed to secure a few specimens on an island with steep rocky cliffs, perhaps 

 twenty or thirty feet high, standing, in some places, back from the shore. Here 

 the birds were sitting about the rocks and were, apparently, breeding on June 

 27th. In one case a bird was put out from a hollow in the face of the cliff, where 

 there was a sort of apology for a nest, — no trace of a burrow, but a natural crevice 

 in the rock; but no eggs rewarded our search; and the birds, when dissected out, 

 did not appear to be yet in full breeding condition. Could they be late breeders, 

 as Koenig surmised? Yet we had seen, eleven days earlier, the typical Puffin 

 (F. a. arched) with eggs at Bear Island; and it seemed strange that there should 

 be such a discrepancy between the breeding dates of two such closely allied forms. 

 For some time after this we made no progress. We found the birds, it is 

 true, in considerable numbers, apparently breeding high up in the precipitous 

 rock faces of Vogel Hoek, on Prince Charles Foreland; but here they were safe 

 enough from anything we could do. Time was slipping away. We were gradual- 

 ly diminishing our desiderata list to more moderate dimensions; but no success 

 had been scored against the Puffins till the night of July 8th. At least our 

 watches pointed to the fact that it was nearly midnight; and as matter of fact 

 we had been at work or on deck for about fifteen hours, but the air was still and 

 calm and the sun was shining brightly, as we rowed quietly to the foot of Cloven 

 Cliff. Overhead towered the great mass of fissured rock, and at its foot huge 

 boulders and broken fragments, fallen from above, were jumbled in confusion. 

 Picking our way between or over them, we flushed a good many Eiders from their 

 warm nests, some containing recently hatched young and chipping eggs. Now 

 and then a Snow Bunting would flutter out of some deep crevice between the 

 boulders; but as the nests probably contained young, we wasted no time on them. 

 High above us came the confused noise of hundreds of Brunnich's Murres, mingled 

 with the high-pitched wailing notes of the Burgomaster Gulls from their eyries 

 up aloft and the twittering notes of the Little Auk; and as we picked our way slow- 

 ly up the side of the cliff, taking advantage of every available foot-hold and hand- 

 hold, the noise grew louder and louder. We had left a little colony of Mandt's 

 Guillemots with young in their nests down below us. While we peered into the 

 holes, the old birds would come and perch within a few feet, eying us all the 

 time with the greatest interest. But above us, silent and still, was a row of our 

 big-billed friends, watching every movement with expressionless stares. Gradual- 

 ly we worked our way higher and higher, my companion (H. Paget Wilkes) lead- 

 ing the way, until at last we were close below where the Puffins still sat. Worm- 

 ing his way up a gully and testing every likely cranny as he went, he managed 

 to reach three nests. Every one was in a natural cleft in the rock face, not very 

 deep in, lined with quite a substantial nest of bents and a few feathers. Another 

 nest was still empty. The birds sat on the rocks above the nests, as the Little 

 Auks do, and so gave away the approximate site; but the difficulty consists in 

 getting at them. Of these three eggs, one was very slightly incubated, the second 

 about 7-10 days, while the third was considerably incubated. From our perch 

 in a little recess in the face of the cliff, we could look down on the still water of the 

 Sound below us, with the sloop looking like a child's toy. Each egg was inspected 

 in turn before being carefully packed for the descent. By the time we got back 

 to the boat it was about 5 a. m., and after some twenty hours of field work, we 

 were both of us quite ready for a spell in our bunks. 



About a week later we had occasion to drop a small party on the islands 

 where we found this species established at the end of June. They set off about 

 8 a. m. on July 17th ,and we left shortly after, arranging to call and pick them 

 up about 5 p. m. The weather was then calm and fine, but in the afternoon a 

 stiff breeze from the west sprang up without warning, and gradually freshened 

 till our sloop could hardly make any headway against it. Quite a nasty sea had 

 got up, and it was about 9:30 p. m. when we got under the lee of the islands and 

 with some difficulty picked up our party. They had shot two Puffins and caught 

 a third on its nest with one egg, at the same spot where we had put the bird out 



