MK. K. lil DWELL UN TUK 1SLE.S 01' SCILLY. 
i'oy 
and build in tlieir Ijurroughs. They lay each but one Egg before 
they sit, like the RazurbUl and (Juilknn; although it be the 
coininon perswasion that they lay two at a time, ot which the one 
is always addle. They fceil their young ones wondrous fat. The 
old ones early in the morning, at break of day, leave their Nests 
and Young, and the Island itself, and spend the whole day in 
lishing in the Sea, never returning or once setting foot on the 
Island before Evening twilight. So that all day the Island is so 
(piiet and still from all noise as if there were not a binl about it. 
Whatever lish or other food they have gotten and swallowed in 
the day-time, by the innate heat or proper ferment of the stomach 
is (as they say) changed into a certain oyly substance (or rather 
chyle), a good part whereof in the night-time they vomit up into 
the mouths of their Young, which being therewith nourished, grow 
extraordinarily fat. When they are come to their full growth, 
they who are intrusted by the Lord of the Island (the Earl of 
Darby), draw them out of the Cony-holes, and that they may the 
more readily know and keep account of the number they take, they 
cut olf one foot and rc.serve it, which gave occa.sion to that Fable 
that the I’ufVms are singh'-footed. They usually .sell them for 
about nine pence the dozen, a very chcaj) late. 'J'hey .sjiy their 
llesh is permitted by the liomiith ( 'hurch to be eaten in L< ut, being 
for the taste so like to lish. 
“ Gcmer and Aldruvuml following him, from the relation of a 
certain EitijUsh man, write that they want hard feathers, being 
covered only with soft feathers, or a kind of down, which is 
altogether false, thev being furnished \vith suHicientlv long Wings 
o «.oo 
and Tail and flying very swiftly. They say it is a foolish bird and 
easily taken. We are told that they breed not only on the 
Cal/ of Man, but also on the Silly Islands. 
“ Notwithstanding they are sold so cheap, yet some veal's there is 
thirty pounds made of the young ruHins taken in the Calf of 
Man : whence may be gathered what number of birds breed there.” 
Sir William Jardine observes: The Calf of Man “becoming 
more frequented, and a lighthou.se being erected, the birds 
disappeared entirely, and on a visit which we made to this interest- 
ing island, we were much disappointed in scarcely being able to 
trace even the recollection of their former .abundance.” 
VoU IV. 
I* 
