ST. KILDA AND ITS BIRDS. 375 



in the neighbourhood of which it breeds ; I saw a clutch 

 of eggs taken from this locality, previous to my visit. 



F rater cula arctica (Puffin). 



It is difficult, without seeming exaggeration, to describe 

 the immense multitudes of these birds which make St. 

 Kilda their summer residence. Plentiful as they are on 

 the main island, it is only when one visits the subsidiary 

 islands that the full wealth of Puffin life becomes mani- 

 fest. They occur in countless thousands on Dun, but 

 on Boreray and Soay the vast hordes of these birds baffle 

 description, and of these two islands the latter appears to 

 be the most densely populated. They simply swarm 

 everywhere, breeding indifferently on the grassy hillsides 

 which are riddled with their innumerable burrows, and 

 under boulders and masses of rock wherever these occur. 

 They scuttle out of their burrows at every step one takes. 

 They dot the grassy slopes in multitudes, and every little 

 coign of vantage such as is afforded by a projecting rock, 

 is thickly covered with them. They rise in the air with 

 a loud whirling noise of wings, in thousands at a time, 

 and fly past one in an apparently never ending stream. 

 Abundant as these birds always were, there seems no 

 doubt that of late years they have considerably increased 

 in numbers owing to the fact that they are no longer 

 secured for the sake of their feathers. Formerty immense 

 numbers were killed for this purpose all through the 

 summer, and the discontinuance of this practice has 

 caused the birds to multiply to such an inordinate extent, 

 that they are doing serious damage to the pasturage by 

 riddling the hillsides with their burrows. A good many 

 of them are, however, still snared for food, especially 

 when they first come, and the eggs are also collected both 

 for food and for sale. The puffins arrive with great 



