Wanderings of a Naturalist 



cormorants' eggs while the birds are absent from their nests, 

 though on the Farne Islands clutch after clutch is destroyed 

 by the gulls. Indeed, on these islands as late as August the 

 cormorants are still endeavouring to hatch off their eggs, 

 perhaps the third or fourth sitting, while the gulls with full- 

 grown young are still ready to abscond with any egg that is 

 left unguarded even for a minute. 



Not far from the cormorants a few shags were brooding 

 their eggs, but I did not see more than half a dozen of these 

 birds in the whole island. 



Passing a rocky promontory, I heard, mingled with the 

 shrill clamour of countless herring gulls, the hoarse cry of a 

 greater black-backed gull, and after a while succeeded in 

 identifying the bird among its many smaller cousins, which, 

 indeed, appeared to bear it little good will — doubtless because 

 of its egg-stealing proclivities. The nest, built beside many 

 of those of the herring gull, showed no distinctive marks, but 

 the eggs were considerably larger, and were covered with 

 much larger blotches. Altogether I saw three pairs of greater 

 black backs, two of which had eggs, while the third appeared 

 to be nest-building. 



On the eastern side of the island, where the rocks were 

 sheer, a colony of kittiwakes were building. In no case had 

 any eggs been laid, but many of the nests were nearly com- 

 pleted; indeed, one bird sat so close that before she flew off 

 from her empty nest I made sure she must be brooding. On 

 the same cliff were many guillemots — most of them engaged 

 in settling their claims to the most sought-after ledges, though 

 a few had already dropped their eggs — and a number of 

 razorbills. 



A little beyond this bird colony a peregrine had her n^st 

 on a ledge in the rock near its highest point. To-day it was 

 the tiercel who was doing the duties of incubation, for ihe flew 

 screaming from the eyrie, just as his mate soared from the 

 cliff a few yards away to mingle her cries with his. In the 

 eyrie were two beautifully coloured eggs, reposing in a slight 



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