Il8 T. H. NELSON: A RAMBLE ON THE FARNE ISLANDS. 



islands and neared the Staples the numbers of the birds increased 

 until we arrived opposite the Pinnacles, when the water seemed to be 

 perfectly alive with Guillemots and Puffins ; diving as our boat 

 approached, they reappeared behind us when we had passed ; 

 others were flying overhead in all directions, the Puffins looking very 

 comical as they passed close above us. On some of the outlying 

 rocks and on the islands groups of Gulls were sitting, chiefly the 

 Lesser Blackbacks, in mature plumage, although some were in the 

 second and third years' dress. A few Eiders {Somaferia mollissifna) 

 were swimming between the islands, but they did not suffer a near 

 approach. Cuthbertson told us that there was a King Eider {S. spec- 

 tahilis) in the neighbourhood ; he had seen it several times during the 

 spring, but we did not catch a sight of this rarity during our visits."^ 

 A Manx Shearwater {Puffinus a?iglorum) flew past us near the 

 Pinnacles, the only one we saw, although we were told they were not 

 uncommon in the autumn. 



After three-quarters of an hour's sail we reached the Outer Fame, 

 and landed in a little bay near the lighthouse. This island is a long, 

 low, rugged reef of rocks, destitute of herbage, and swept by every 

 winter storm, a dreary abode for the light-keepers, of whom there are 

 always three stationed here, a fourth being on shore, off duty. After 

 inspecting the lighthouse and the ' Syren ' fog-horn, we crossed over 

 to the north or seaward side of the island, where, on a bank of 

 shingle, we found a colony of Sandwich and Arctic Terns nesting. 

 There were very few perfect eggs to be seen, owing to a storm a day 

 or two previous, during which the sea had washed over the nesting- 

 ground and broken most of the eggs ; I counted at least twenty 

 Sandwich Terns' eggs destroyed in this manner, and there was further 

 evidence of the violence of the storm to be seen in the timbers of a 

 schooner, wrecked near the Terns' colony. In addition to the Terns' 

 nests, one of our party found an Oystercatcher's [Hcematopus ostralegiis) 

 nest, with one egg. 



On leaving the Longstone we directed our course for the middle 

 group of islands, soon landing on the Staples, where, after ascending 

 a gentle slope, we reached the top of the island, almost covered with 

 white campion in full bloom. The soil here is of a spongy, peaty 

 nature, in many places perforated with holes in which the curious 

 little Puffins, with their orange-coloured legs and beaks, were nesting. 

 Being wishful to take a Puffin's egg, I put my arm down one of the 

 holes, and very soon found the tenant was at home ; fortunately 



I notice in the Zoologist for February 1886, p. 76, that a male King Eider, in 

 all probability the same bird as mentioned above, was killed at the Fames in 



April 1885. 



Naturalist, 



