tHE BIRDS OF PAPA STOUR. i29 



nesting on the grassy summit, and any shelves on the side occu- 

 pied by the piles of seaweed and dried grass forming the nests of 

 the Shag. Rowing through a narrow chasm between Sula (query, 

 has this any connection with Sula bassana : see Sulasgeir Suli- 

 skerry) and Asha stacks, we came in sight of the two Skerries. 



Fogla — Fowl-a — is an islet of considerable size, grazing a 

 large number of sheep, which are landed on it by being thrown 

 out of a boat on to the rocks at the only possible landing-place : 

 this is a narrow ridge of rock, between two enormous chasms, 

 which slopes up to the top of the islet. Though the ascent is 

 not at all difficult, a man lost his life here— as many sheep are 

 often lost — by slipping off the ridge into the chasm below. His 

 body was never seen again. I had been questioning the men 

 with regard to the birds to be found on these islets, and especially 

 with regard to the Shearwater or Lyrie, but they did not appear 

 to be at all acquainted with it, and evidently were ignorant of its 

 breeding habits. 



We landed on Fogla without much difficulty, and I made a 

 hurried examination of the island, which is about a quarter of a 

 mile long. The Shearwater certainly does not breed here, for 

 there are no burrows of any kind on it. I saw many nests of 

 Larus fuscus, and obtained one of L. marinus, perched — very 

 characteristically of that bird in this region — on the top of a 

 semi-detached pillar of rock. Peter also brought me three eggs 

 of the Guillemot, and asked if those were Lyrie's eggs ! The 

 men also found a few Eiders' eggs, and many eggs of the Lesser 

 Black-backed Gull, but most of the nests contained only one egg, 

 this islet being too easy of access. I found a different state of 

 things to exist on the summit of the all but inaccessible Lyra 

 Skerry. This, to which we now pulled, is very incorrectly termed 

 a skerry, which means, strictly speaking, a low wave-washed rock. 

 It is really a huge " stack " of porphyritic rock, 180 feet high and 

 about a quarter of a mile in circumference. It lies between 

 Fogla and the cliffs of Papa, from which it is distant about a 

 furlong, and has two fine outlying stacks or pillars on either side, 

 called respectively " Snolda " and the " Fit." Lyra is perpen- 

 dicular, or overhanging, on all sides except one small portion at 

 the S.E. corner, just to the right of the magnificent sea-floored 

 cavern that passes through the island. This was pointed out to 

 me as " the road up." 



