224 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



But we might have quoted an even better instance of 

 the elusive ways of these interesting birds in the case of 

 the one we mentioned above, viz., the great shearwater 

 or Puffinus gravis. This bird occasionally visits our own 

 shores ; and any one who has crossed the Atlantic, in 

 temperate or tropical regions, cannot fail to have noticed 

 this superb flyer, as it swoops and skims over the foam- 

 crested waves with the very acme of perfected flight. 

 Yet it is hardly two years since the eggs of this well-known 

 petrel were taken for the first time, viz., by Mr. Keyfcee 

 in the Island of Tristan d'Acunha. 



When we are building our castles in Spain, we like to 

 dream sometimes of finding it somewhere among the 

 precipitous rocks of " The Seven Brothers." 



THE END. 



