THE FLANNAN ISLES 263 



late in February or in March. We did not see the 

 Razorbill in the vicinity of the islands : all had departed 

 before our arrival on 6th September. 



Guillemot, Uria troile. — Vast numbers make their 

 homes on the cliffs during spring and summer, arriving 

 from the middle to the end of February. They had 

 quitted their breeding-haunts before our visit, and we 

 only saw old birds, accompanied by their full-grown 

 young, at some distance from the islands, on the 

 occasions of our arrival and departure. 



Black Guillemot, Uria gry lie. — This characteristic 

 west-coast species thins out in the Hebrides, and we 

 could not obtain any evidence that it breeds on any 

 of the Flannan Islands. It is possible, however, that 

 a few do, and that they have escaped notice among the 

 vast crowds of rock-birds present during the summer. 

 We observed odd birds, sometimes a pair, close to the 

 base of the cliffs of Eilean Mor on several occasions. 



Puffin, Fratercula arctica. — The commonest summer 

 visitor to Eilean Mor, and probably to the other islands 

 of the group. On the top of the main island, where the 

 turf is suitable for the formation of their burrows, there 

 are colonies of thousands, and vast numbers resort to the 

 holes and crevices on the face of the cliffs. The great 

 breeding crowd had left ere we arrived, and the very few 

 that remained were detained by their unfledged young, 

 some of which were still half-clad in down. The 

 industry of this comical bird is marvellous. We some- 

 times sat near their burrows, and the constancy with 

 which the old birds arrived with strings of small fish 

 hanging from their bills, was quite remarkable; they 

 seemed to be coming in every few minutes, and the 

 young must surely be very voracious little creatures. 



