:>/ I rEANSACTIOXS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



swerve off to one side, and no more can be obtained. 

 Some 500 birds may in this way be taken in the course of 

 a single night. The same ledge is only visited once a 

 year, but different ledges are takes in succession. The 

 men do not go out for this purpose on more than two or 

 three occasions in one season. At this time, and this 

 only, are they considered to be good eating, and they are 

 caught for that purpose; the feathers, however are col- 

 lected and sold. Early in May the birds come to tin 1 

 rocks altogether staying on them both by day and night. 

 They begin to lay about May loth or Kith, though they 

 do not all lay at that time; May 18th, as nearly as 

 weather permits, is the day chosen by the men for making 

 a first raid after the eggs. Eighteen days after taking the 

 first eggs, the men go for a second lot, as most of tin 1 birds 

 have laid again by that time. Nearly as many vggs are 

 obtained the second time as the first. Thus from one 

 ledge on May 23rd (>() eggs were taken, and the same 

 ledge on June 21st furnished 53 more. Some of the birds 

 will even lay a third time if the second eggs be taken, 

 but the number that do this is never more than half, and 

 the eggs are distinctly smaller, so that they are seldom 

 considered worth going after. AVhen the birds have 

 been undisturbed they are mostly hatched out about June 

 21st (some earlier) and the young ones are full [ledge 1 

 about the end of July. Old birds and young togethei 

 will be seen swimming about all through August, but oy 

 the beginning of September they have nearly all taken 

 their departure, and none are seen again until the rnd 

 of the following February. 



Uria grylle (Black Guillemot). 



Resident, but by no means plentiful. The only place 

 where I saw it was in \\w Dun passage, amongst the rocks 



