C. AND II. CANDLER ON BIRD-LlfcE OF SKELL1G ROCKS. 
47 
on tho swell, our men keeping her off with their long oars, and 
shouting to one another in their native Irish, into which they 
always lapsed in moments of excitement. A short spell of stiff 
hand- and- foot climbing brought us to the top of the cliff; and we 
advanced along the steep and slippery slopes of sea-thrift, towards 
the breeding station of the Gannets, at the east end of the island. 
No one had landed on tho rock since the previous summer, and 
tho birds were tame and unsuspicious of harm — which, indeed, 
we were very far from intending them. Several times we sat 
down within a few feet of a Puffin which, turning about its 
head, would follow our movements with a ridiculously solemn 
expression of curiosity and interest quite unmixed with fear. 
The number of Puffins breeding on the island is very great. 
The turf slopes were honeycombed with their burrows, into which 
we were constantly breaking, and, as we stumbled along, the birds 
whizzed out of their holes on all sides of us. Most of the eggs 
were hard sat on and much discoloured. We noted here several 
bushes of the Tree Mallow ( Laratcra arborea), which appears to 
grow upon all these islands, from the Tearaght to the Bull, *but 
is rare generally on the Irish coast. To the naturalist, however, 
the interest of the Little Skellig centres in its colony of Gannets. 
The east end of the island is, in great part, bare of vegetation, 
presenting considerable surfaces of level rock ; and it is here, upon 
terraces rising one above another, that the nests of the Gannets 
are placed. As we moved about among the birds they twisted 
their necks and hissed at us like farmyard geese, and not till 
we were almost within touch of its nest would any bird take 
flight. This they did rather awkwardly, uttering three times a 
hoarse cry, and flapping some feet along the ground before they 
launched themselves into the air. In this movement they frequently 
dislodged and sometimes broke their eggs, though the nests were 
sufficiently cup-shaped. A few of the eggs we saw were fresh laid 
and nearly white, but many more were deeply stained. We noticed 
a considerable disparity in the size of those we examined. 
Where the nests were most thickly placed there was a space 
between the centre of each of about four feet. All were substan- 
tially built of grass, and the leaves and stems of the various 
maritime plants growing upon the rock, Sea-cabbage, Thrift, Scurvy- 
grass, Ac. ; and those we examined contained little seaweed. The 
