Ii6 BIRD WATCHING 



over, as there is no night properly so speaking, only 

 a portentous lurid murkiness towards midnight, which 

 seems neither to belong to night nor day, and in 

 which, as you can read small print, the skua can 

 very naturally see you, there is no approaching under 

 cloud of darkness and being there, ensconced, when 

 morning dawns. But that the bird disgorges the 

 herrings for the young ones after the manner of gulls 

 generally, and does not carry them in its beak or 

 claws, which is contrary to their practice, there can 

 be no doubt. Now, as every one of these herrings 

 has — as I believe it has — been secured in the 

 manner above described, it is curious to reflect that, 

 when finally swallowed by the young skua, it "goes 

 a progress " for the third time, nor would it be easy, 

 perhaps, to find another instance (outside this family 

 of birds) of prey that has been twice given up, through 

 fear once, and then, again, through love. 



The herrings lying about the nest, and which have 

 thus been recently disgorged for the second time, 

 look almost as fresh and clean as if nothing peculiar 

 had happened to them. They are disgorged whole, 

 or nearly so ; for, as I myself observed, in the great 

 majority of cases the head is absent. Thus at one 

 nest, in the neighbourhood of which (but this means 

 often a considerable space of ground) forty - one 

 herrings or their remains were lying, only ten 

 retained the head or any part of it. At another, 

 where there were thirteen, all were entirely headless : 

 at another there were eight, of which one only had 

 part of the head remaining : at another ten, eight of 

 which were headless : at another seven, six of which 

 were : and at another four, of which one retained the 



