452 MR. J, H. GURNEY, JUN., ON THE ISLES OF SCILLY. 
were burrows made by the Shearwaters I have no doubt. I think 
the egg is generally at the end of the burrow, and certainly the 
ceiling of the chamber in which it is deposited is sometimes not 
more than six inches from the surface. When taken out, the 
Shearwater makes no attempt to escape. 
It is most likely, from Mr. Bidwell’s observations, that they 
rake the hole out with the beak {l.c. p. 213); but I was so careful 
about not further disturbing them after the recent robbery, that 
my observations on their nesting arrangements were incomplete. 
At the southern end of Annet the rocks are overlaid with a thick 
bed of soil, partly peat, partly sand, which their hooked beaks, 
aided probably by their feet, easily make an impression upon. 
Debes says they use both (‘Faeroa Eeserata,’ p. 145), and his 
account, which Mr. Bidwell quotes, though printed more than 
two hundred years ago, is very faithful. This situation is quite 
unlike the place where they nidificate at Eigg, on the coast of 
Scotland, where !Mr. Macpherson says they nest on cliffs from 
one to seven hundred feet in height (l.c. jx 216).* 
Mr. Mitchell alludes to the Shearwaters’ habit of occasion- 
ally congregating (Yarrell, ‘British Birds,’ vol. hi. p. 570). 
In August, 1885, Captain White, of St. Mary’s, saw a flock, 
mostly birds of the }"ear, reaching two miles on the water, and 
comprising, he believes, many thousands. They appeared to be 
very tired or all asleep, and were so tame, when he ran his boat 
among them, as to allow themselves to be touched with a boathook. 
It is not likely that so many had been bred on Annet : they had 
probably just arrived from further north, perhaps from Scomer 
Island in Wales. The colony at Annet, at a rough guess, may 
number two hundred pairs, which would not have been near 
sufficient to provide such a congregation ; moreover, their tendency 
would be to move south as autumn approached. 
I have devoted so much space to the Shearwater that I must 
pass briefly over the other species. The Shag {Phalacrocorax 
gracidus) is very common, and on Great Inisvouls we found 
about twelve nests with eggs, and one with young birds, which, 
on May 12th, was early. One youngster was blind, and the 
other two just able to see. Only two of the nests had three 
* I have been favoured with a sketch of the exact place by Mr. Arthur 
Macpherson, which in every way agrees with his cousin’s description. 
