Ml!. K. JJIDWKLI. OX Tlir. ISLliS OK .SC'ILLV. 
southern end of the ishand, but they had not done so for many 
years past. 
Our next landing was on the rock from whicli the group take.s 
its name — Scilly ; a large rock lying to the north-west, and divided 
in two to the water’s edge by a narrow chasm. It is quite bare of 
vegetation, but is resorted to for nesting purposes by the Guillemot, 
liazorbill. Puffin, Shag, Herring and Lesser Llack-backed Gulls. 
We picked out a few nicely marked eggs of the tw’o first named 
species, and then started for Annett, sailing past Castle Bryer, 
Black Bock, on whicli we saw a seal basking. Seal Island, and 
Great Smith. Lying to the south-west of tlie group, we found 
Annett to be a long and narrow island, of very slight elevation. 
When wo had climbed over the low rocks, avc saw that the surface 
was covered with a carpet of Thrift; whicli, being in full llower, 
made an extremely bright picture under the June sun. Towards 
the south-eastern end the peaty soil gives place to sandy loam, and 
this is honeycombed with the nesting-holes of the Shearwaters and 
the Puffins. AVc had no difficulty in finding them, or the direction 
in which they were excavated, for as we Avent along, Avhenever avo 
Avero Avalking over a nest the ground gave AAuiy beneath our feet. 
( )ur pilot had provided himself Avith a .shovel for digging out th(‘ 
eggs, but it did not prove nearly so serviceable as the small square 
trowel Avhich I had brought from home, and Avhich Avas much less 
likely to break the egg Avhen digging in its immediate vicinity. 
The single Avhito egg of the Shearwater is sometimes placed 
on the bare earth, but more often on an apology for a nest, 
composed of dead Thrift or chips and stalks of the Brake ( Ptevis 
aquilina ), at the end of a hole excavated by the bird, from twelve 
to eighteen inches beloAV the surface of the soil, and varying in 
length from two to four feet. In every hole Ave dug into Ave found 
one, and, in some cases, both the birds. Many of the holes had 
several chambers, and in one of them Ave found both a Puffin and a 
ShearAvater, as Avell as an egg of each species. The male takes 
part in incubation as Avell as the female, for one Avhich avo killed 
had a large bare breeding-patch of the same size as those of 
the female. AVhen seized, the ShearAvaters did not hesitate to use 
their sharply-hooked beaks, and had I not been provided Avith 
a thick leather glove, my hand Avould soon have bi'cn lacerated. 
In every case the eggs Avere \"cry much incubated, and although Ave 
