LUNDY ISLAND. xU 



pilots and others, who have either roblDed their nests or cruelly- 

 shot them for their feathers, and the Gannets, especially, have 

 been driven from pillar to post and greatly reduced in numbers. 



Mr. Howard Saunders, in his account of the Kittiwake (Yarrell's 

 B. Birds, 4th ed. p. 653), has given a sickening history of the way 

 in which this beautiful Gull was quite recently massacred at Lundy 

 for the sake of its wings, for which there was at the time a great 

 demand for ladies^ hats. '^'^At Clovelly, opposite Lundy Island, 

 there was a regular staff for preparing the plumes ; and fishing- 

 smacks, with extra boats and crews, used to commence their work 

 of destruction at Lundy Island by daybreak on the 1st of August 

 [when the close time under the Sea Birds' Preservation Act ex- 

 pired], continuing this proceeding for upwards of a fortnight. In 

 many cases the wings were torn off the wounded birds before they 

 were dead, the mangled victims being tossed back into the water.'"' 

 The result of this cruelty was that he himself had seen " hundreds 

 of young birds dead or dying of starvation in the nests, through 

 want of their parents' care ; for in the heat of the fusillade no 

 distinction was made between old and young. On one day 700 

 birds were sent back to Clovelly, on another 500, and so on ; and, 

 allowing for the starved nestlings, it is well within the mark to 

 say that at least 9000 of these inoffensive birds were destroyed 

 during tlie fortnight." 



From the description sent us by the Rev. H. G. Heaven of a 

 little bird seen by him early in October in 187G, it is probable that 

 the island was visited by a species of Vireo {" Greenlets •"), a large 

 and widely dispersed jNTortli- American genus of small Flycatchers. 

 We copy the very full account given of the bird by Mr. Heaven : — 

 ''Size : about that of the Rol)in, perhaps slightly more robust in 

 contour, but tail shorter in proportion. Plumage : upper ^mrts of 

 head, neck, back, tail, and wing-covcrts uniform ashen grey with 

 an olive-green tint in certain lights; wings and tail umber-brown, 

 but with an ashen-grey tint on them, as though dusted with very 

 fine powder ; secondaries and tertiaries tipped with dull white, pro- 

 ducing bars on the wings when closed ; legs, beak, and eyes black, 

 or very dark brown ; the eyes a very marked feature, Ijcing very 

 large, full, and brilliant, and set in lids fringed with an edging of 

 the purest white, so that the eye looked like a brilliant jet bead set 



d-1 



