THE STORMY PETREL AT HOME. 151 



full light was thus let in upon her. I was too eager to grasp 

 her, however, and in doing so, chipped the egg beneath her. 

 She stopped crying, and lay quietly in my hand without squirt- 

 ing any oil upon me. Shortly after I had killed her the oil 

 began to flow from her bill and to damage her head feathers. 



I laid the bird on a piece of paper, and went across the 

 brough to the point in quest of the Oyster-catcher, which now 

 resumed its uproar. We examined a nest of the Arctic Tern, 

 containing three eggs, and formed of long pieces of dry sea- 

 weed and zoophytes, placed on a bed of chickweed. Amongst 

 some low rocks at hand was a nest of the Common Gull, con- 

 taining a rotten egg. We did not succeed in finding the 

 Oyster-catcher, and reached again the hollow where I had 

 found the first Petrel's egg. 



Climbing the slope from this, and testing the various holes 

 for the characteristic odour, we halted at a small opening 

 which led various ways into the grassy bank, and we were soon 

 confirmed in our decision by a repetition of the grinding note, 

 which may be represented on paper as " ki-yaa-it." We set to 

 work, and were quickly showing evidences of our labour in the 

 hole we were forming in the side of the bank ; but we had to 

 dig deeply before receiving any award of our toil. Presently a 

 rotten egg, last year's, apparently, was laid bare, then a Petrel 

 sitting on her egg. The Petrel retired, and we abstracted the 

 eg<y with difficulty ; we could then safely loosen other material, 

 and I gripped the bird. On being removed from the hole she 

 squirted some oil out of her mouth. On being released she 

 fluttered to the earth, where she lay for a second or two 

 amongst the grass, then rising again a foot or so above the 

 herbage, she fluttered from side to side, beating her long sharp 

 wings with regular moderate speed, and disappeared over the 

 bank. Her flight was silent and easy, and could hardly be 

 compared with that of known species. 



Others were crying in the same cavity, and encouraged us 

 to dig on. The next Petrel discovered also left her egg when 

 daylight was let in upon her, and retreated further into the 

 hole, so that I had to bring her out by a wing. The third 

 bird taken here proved more vicious than the others, and 

 gripped my finger tenaciously ; when held in the hand she 



