84 



The Naturalist. 



various deeper tints. The lesser black-back is essentially the gull of 

 the Fames, They immediately assail the visitor, on his landing, 

 with their discordant croakings, which are incessant during the 

 intrusion. They are to a certain degree fearless, those alighting 

 allowing a close inspection of their blue-black backs, which contrast 

 grandly with the snowy head and under surface, and their lemon- 

 coloured legs and richer yellow bills. Accompanying them annually 

 are a few, very few, pairs of the. herring gall, at once recognisable by 

 their paler, dove-coloured backs and flesh-coloured legs. The eggs of 

 this species, if wanted, must be here obtained by watching the bird 

 on to the nest — a precaution necessary for their identification, the 

 eggs and nest being indistinguishable from those of the lesser black- 

 back. There were also several nests of the eider duck on this island, 

 placed in hollows between the rocks, and in situations similar to 

 those of the lesser black-back ; they were entirely composed of down 

 of a smoky brown tint, the shafts at the ^omt of insertion being paler, 

 giving to the structure a spotted appearance. Eider down is not 

 white, as many suppose. This down the duck plucks from her body 

 as incubation proceeds, until a large nest of down, held together by 

 small particles of dry stalks, &c., has accumulated, in which the eggs 

 (usually five in number) are almost hidden. On my visit in May, 

 1876, only three nests were found; two of them contained a couple 

 of eggs which had been carefully covered with fresh-plucked weeds 

 by the old duck on leaving. These nests did not then contain a particle 

 of down, but were wholly composed of dry grass. When leaving the 

 nest, the bird sometimes leaves her eggs covered with liquid excre- 

 ment of a pale brownish-white colour ; this may be due to fright, for 

 I only observed it in cases where the bird was actually put off the 

 nest. I believe that the mottled green appearance of most of the 

 eggs is caused by this, for those in the nests containing one or two 

 eggs only were of an uniform even pale green. Single eider's eggs 

 were found in several instances in the nests of the lesser black- 

 backed gull, attributable no doubt to their own nests being taken 

 before the complement of eggs had been laid. 



In 1876 a detachment of cormorants from the headquarters on the 

 Megstone had nested for the first time on the South Wamses, and I 

 took a few of their chalk-coated eggs from their tall nests built up of 

 seaweed to a height of about two feet, lined with dry grasses and 

 finer seaweed, and in one or two cases a few feathers. On approaching 

 this island, which was the first one visited in 1876, these birds 

 erected their tall gaunt forms, looking from a distance like so many 



