KEV. Jl. A. .MACPUEUSUX OX TJIE ilAXX SHEAUWATEli. 
laid about tlie middle of j\Iay.'*' They described the birds as being 
most noisy at night, during the progress of their excavations, and 
again when the young were hatched. Tliey considered that the 
males, which are always in best condition, visit the burrows at 
night to feed their mates on the food which they have gathered 
during the day ; but expressed their conviction that both old birds 
foraged for their single progeny, which was prodigiously fat, and 
left the burrow between the middle and end of August. One of 
the men, iMacdonald, plucked a piece of Sorrel, and informed me 
that the old birds fed their young partly on this plant for a few 
days prior to its flying, in order to reduce its bulk. This, 
I find, Hugh Miller was told in Eigg some forty years earlier. 
It has often been incorrectly stated that the Manx Shearwater is 
chiefly nocturnal during the breeding season ; but a moment’s 
reflection will demonstrate the absurdity of the hypothesis, that a 
bird, which consumes such a quantity of food gathered by active 
exertion, conld satisfy its hunger, and possibl}'^ that of its mate, by 
only venturing abroad during the hours of darkness, which only last 
from eleven p.m. to two a.m., at the outside, on this north coast in 
summer.f I have oidy observed Shearwaters in the neighbourhood 
of the shore in the evening and in the very early morning •, but 
have frequently obseiu'od large parties flying actively over the 
waves, apparently feeding, during the dag. The Eigg men assured 
me that numbers might be seen fishing all day long in the Sound 
of Eigg during the breeding season, at a distance of from two to 
three miles from shore, and I have observed this myself oii both 
sides of Eigg, as well as in other parts of the Hebrides. The fact 
is, that the Shearwater, like the Petrel {T. iiclagica), is ill ailapted 
to face its enemies on dry land by day. Those which I released 
on a smooth superficies of turf, ran with considerable rapidity, but 
preferred to skulk among the bushes. The jdienomenon of finding 
* The Eev. N. Mackenzie, minister of St. Kilda, recorded in his diary for 
18 11 : “ February. — The Shearwater has come to these islands (St. Kilda 
group) the latter end of this month. March. — The Shearwater has been 
caught but not in abundance” (M'’ilson, ‘Voyage round the Coast of 
Scotland,’ vol. ii. p. 75). Probably, the hullc of the Shearwaters return to 
their Scottish breeding stations in April, though a few arrive in February 
and March. 
t The observations of Mr. C. Hart (‘Zoologist,’ 1883, p. 81) seem to 
confirm my conclusions. 
