S84 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



islanders returning from a day's fishing 1 or a fowling 

 expedition, they all with one accord rush down to the 

 shore to meet it, and it is a most ludicrous sight to see the 

 whole pack capering ahout the little pier and landing slip 

 on such occasions, and barking for all it is worth. 

 But the arrival of a steamer makes them go fairly mad 

 with excitement, and when this occurs at night, sleep is 

 quite impossible, and it takes them a long time to get 

 quieted down again. They do, however, really serve one 

 useful purpose, and that is by acting as scavengers. The 

 bodies of birds which had been skinned in the evening 

 and thrown over the low wall in front of the cottages, had 

 always disappeared by the following morning, and the 

 basins into which egg^s had been emptied of their contents 

 were cleared up in the twinkling of an eye. Such time 

 indeed as is not taken up with quarrelling among them- 

 selves, is spent in prowling about seeking what they may 

 devour, and in a community where sanitary arrangements 

 are virtually non-existent, and where the refuse of birds 

 and eggs is constantly littering about, a function of this 

 sort is not without its value in the body politic. 



The wealth of the St. Kildans, if one may so style their 

 chief means of livelihood, lies mainly in their flocks and 

 their birds, for the produce of the little crofts, apart from 

 the potatoes they grow, chiefly goes to the support of the 

 few cattle which they rear. Of late years they have taken 

 to do a certain amount of fishing, both for home consump- 

 tion and for export, but the sheep and the birds furnish 

 their main support. Roughly speaking, they own 

 altogether about 1,000 sheep, TOO of which are on the home 

 island, and -°>00 on Boreray. The rams are kept on Dun 

 during the spring and summer months, and in November, 

 when these are taken off, the lambs are put there to fatten. 

 An annual capitation fee, varying from sixpence to a 



