86 



The NA.TUEALI8T. 



in the calmest weather, and are to be ascended by the aid of a ladder 

 and a chain hung from the top of one of them ; with these, it is not a 

 yery difficult task to reach the summit. On the sides of the Pinnacles 

 we also look down upon several nests of the kittiwake, glued as it 

 were to the inequalities on the face of the perpendicular rock — 

 seemingly a most precarious position. There are also several more 

 on the face of the cliff on whose brink we stand. These nests are 

 composed of seaweed and grass ; on some the birds are sitting ; 

 others are uncovered, showing the eggs ; whilst a few of these elegant 

 birds sail beneath, almost within arm's reach. There too sits a 

 solitary female shag ; she has no nest, but according to Mr. John 

 Hancock (" Birds of Northumberland and Durham this species has 

 nested on the Fames in one or two instances. A few pairs of the 

 razorbill are also nesting in the crevices, but the guillemots object to 

 their presence so close to their domain, and this, together with the 

 limited space of suitable breeding ground — for it is confined to this 

 single site — accounts for this being one of the scarcest species here. 

 Its single egg is tolerably safe, in the cleft, from the spoon and rod 

 used to obtain it and those of the kittiwake. 



The Knoxes, the next island we visited, is one of the principal 

 haunts of the terns ; here they are found amongst the herbage, which 

 is abundant. We had expected to find eggs of the Sandwich tern 

 among the great numbers lying around, but only a single specimen 

 was seen. The eider was also nesting, several nests with eggs being 

 observed, and a flock of about thirty birds flew off as we landed. On 

 the reef lying on the north, which is connected with the island at low 

 water, known as the Knoxes Eeef, terns' eggs were very abundant, 

 being thickly scattered over the shingle and on the hard-dried sea- 

 weed. Amongst this immense collection were a cluster of the eggs of 

 the Sandwich tern, from which we selected a few contrasting varieties 

 for our collections. The variety with the white tinted ground colour 

 was greatly in the ascendant. A nest and eggs of the oyster-catcher 

 was also among this assemblage, and numerous empty depressions 

 prettily surrounded with shells and white stones, the nest of this 

 bird, were noted. The ring dotterel, a pair or two of which nest on 

 all the islands suitable, viz., having a sandy or fine shingly beach, 

 had also a nest, or rather a depression scratched in the shingle, 

 containing three eggs, our last find on the Fames. We have now 

 worked our way back to Fame Island, the innermost of the group^ 

 on which we did not land, for it does not afford the attractions of the 

 other islands, having a lighthouse and several other erections upon it. 



