Clarke : Bird-Life at the Farne Islands. 



83 



The next island visited, the Xorth Wamses, is the great breeding 

 resort of the puffin ; having in former years abounded in rabbits, 

 this bird finds a congenial nesting-place in the old burrows with 

 which the turf is honeycombed, but it is, however, supposed that they 

 frequently excavate fresh burrows for themselves. The eggs are best 

 obtained by lifting the friable mass of hummocky turf containing 

 the burrow, and turning it over, leaving exposed Mrs. Puffin on her 

 solitary egg, which, in a few instances, is cradled on some green 

 herbage, an apology for a nest. She is very loth to quit her treasure, 

 and after being cautiously lifted off, will sit at your feet, apparently 

 quite unconcerned, eyeing you quaintly all the time. Another method 

 is to insert the hand an arm's length into the burrow and withdraw 



I the bird ; this requires due caution, and should be performed with a 

 thickly-gloved hand, for the bird resents forcible ejection, and its beak 

 is a weapon not to be despised. Most of the eggs are coated with 

 peat, which when removed leaves a whitish egg faintly marked with 

 brown and purple. At this date they were in an advanced stage of 

 incubation, but on the 18th of May, the year before, fresh eggs were 

 plentiful. It is a pleasure to be able to state that this species has 



i largely increased in numbers since the days of Mr. W. C. Hewitson, 

 the author of our standard work on British Birds' Eggs, and a gentle- 

 man thoroughly acquainted with the avifauna of the Fames. 

 Numerous nests of the lesser black-backed gull, the most abundant 

 species occurring on the islands, are deposited in the depressions of 

 the rock and turf; they are large structures of coarse grass lined 

 with finer grass, and occasionally a few feathers. On this visit th» 

 eggs had been systematically taken during the past four weeks for 

 sale on the mainland, where they are highly prized for domestic 

 purposes, and I was much struck by the smaller size and the fantastic 

 colouring and marking of the eggs, which exhibited a wide divergence 

 from the typical specimens. Some of these had the appearance of 

 having been dipped in ink, others were pale blue, and many had huge 

 blotches of black and other tints. Xo doubt by some persons these 

 would be considered as fine varieties, but in my opinion it is to be 

 attributed to degeneration, the result of over-production from frequent 

 robbing. On the 18th of May, 1876, 1 accompanied the keeper on his 

 first visit to the islands that season, for the purpose of taking the 

 eggs.^ They were then very numerous, and of a large type, showing 

 very little variety both as regards ground colour and markings, the 

 former being a clear pale brown or a clear pale green — the former, 

 however, being the prevailing tint, spotted somewhat finely with 



