Wanderings of a Naturalist 



keepers who would give these birds short shrift were they to 

 extend their range to the grouse moors of the mainland. 



During these months of early spring the ravens have few 

 bird companions on the island — they share it with a pair of 

 peregrine falcons, a few of those sea birds of sinister reputa- 

 tion, the greater black-backed gull, and many barnacle geese. 



At times the peregrines nest on the island, but more often 

 they lay their eggs and — ^should all go well with them — ^rear 

 their young in the rocky hill face of a sister island a couple 

 of miles distant. The eyrie is quite accessible, and I 

 remember on one occasion approaching the hollow in which 

 the nest was situated arid actually showing my face at the 

 entrance before the brooding falcon was aware that anything 

 was amiss ! 



On seeing the sudden apparition not more than four feet 

 from her the peregrine stood, petrified with fear, beside her 

 eggs, nor could she summon up sufficient courage to fly out 

 until I had withdrawn my head from view. The season of 

 the nesting of the peregrine falls, as a rule, early in April, 

 and even by this date the raven should have hatched out her 

 brood. 



A pair of buzzards nest on the island, and not far from 

 their nesting-ledge a pair of grey crows, birds which can 

 here exercise their egg-sucking propensities to the full. 



Till the coming of May, then, the island is peopled with 

 few birds, and there is here comparative silence should a 

 visitor land from a boat on a sunny morning of April. But 

 with the first days of May there arrive at this sea-girt isle a 

 multitude of feathered people, so that the island is quiet no 

 longer but throbbing with life and activity. Here may now 

 be seen companies of intelligent razorbills, and in greater 

 numbers, guillemots of refined though foolish aspect. But 

 the bird that frequents the island in greatest numbers is the 

 puffin. 



This quaint bird is present here during the nesting 

 season, literally in thousands, and the surface of the ocean 



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