MISCELLANEA. 299 



MISCELLANEA. 



Fame Islands: Notes on a Visit in May, 1^04. — On the 

 15th May, 1904, in the steam yacht " Falaise," I paid a visit 

 to these islands and made some notes, principally intended to 

 be preserved as a record of the times when the various birds 

 commence nesting. Leaving our anchorage at Holy Island, 

 we proceeded to the Megstone. A strong wind was blowing 

 from the west, but without any great difficulty we effected a 

 landing in one of the boats. We expected to find the interest- 

 ing and numerous colony of birds which we have seen now 

 for so many years back, but we were greatly disappointed in 

 finding not a vestige of a nest on the island. A few birds left 

 the rock as we approached, but evidently as a nesting station 

 this island is quite deserted. None of the islands were more 

 interesting to the ornithologist than the Megstone, and that it 

 should have lost its interest is a subject of very great regret. 

 In my address as President of the Field Club, delivered on 

 May 2nd, 1902, I expressed an opinion that if the wanton 

 destruction of nests and eggs was not put an end to it was not 

 improbable the Cormorants would desert this island. My 

 prediction unfortunately has been fulfilled. Certainly last 

 year some heavy seas swept the Megstone, and these may 

 have taken off the old nests and removed its white crest, but 

 this has happened many times in the long course of years in 

 which the birds have made the rock their home, and no doubt 

 the primary cause was the destruction pointed out. 



We next landed on the Staples Island. Four men were 

 here in a sailing boat. They were carrying handkerchiefs 

 filled with what we believed to be eggs, but we cannot speak 

 positively. In walking over the island we fovmd the burrows 

 of the Puffins, which in many cases had their tops removed, 

 and from this we concluded the four visitors to the island had 

 obtained some eggs. It may have been that a few eggs of 

 the Lesser Black-backed Gull were taken, but we saw none 

 ourselves on the island, and only two or three nests which 



