552 
UR. J. H. GURNEY ON IRISH ROCK BIRDS. 
steer, and they “come round” with a rudder formed of feet and 
tail together. My son saw a pied one, perhaps not an uncommon 
occurrence, hut with this exception there was an absolute and 
identical sameness in their bright uniforms, and quaint dapper little 
figures. 
The Puffin’s egg is generally a yard into her hole on a little grass, 
and quite brown from contact with the soil if much sat on, 
a knowledge of which fact will prevent the unnecessary taking 
of eggs which cannot be blown. If such are taken the little 
inhabitant is found to be thickly covered with black hair-like 
feathers above, and white below, and takes up nearly the whole of 
its domicile.* 
On May the 18tli no Puffins were hatched, nor Eazorbills, nor 
Gulls, but some of the Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls had 
three eggs, while many of the Ivitti wakes were still carrying nesting 
materials. This was early, for at Lainbay the Kittiwake does not 
arrive until the end of May (‘ Irish Naturalist,’ 1892, p. 1 10), but in 
this forward season at least three of them had an egg on the Saltees. 
In a sense all these species breed together, yet it may be observed 
that they divide into companies, and each cove and bay has a 
special attraction for some one or other of them. The noisy 
Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls are not on the cliff, but on 
the hill above, and a deafening babel they make as we seek the eggs 
to be found on the sheltered side of some convenient boulder. 
The Oystercatcher nests above them or higher still, and the 
Greater Black-backed Gull which I did not see nests, Mr. Ussher 
tells me, highest of all, while the ledges are the property of the 
Kazorbills (though one Kazorbill had by mistake laid her egg in 
a Puffin’s hole), and lower down are the Shags. 
Many Cormorants and Shags also incubate from preference, or for 
safety, on an island rock called the “ Makestone,” — synonymous 
in name with Megstone rock at the Fame Islands, — but the 
Eev. Professor Skeat is not able to throw any light on the deriva- 
tion of these obscure names, nor is Professor Newton able to. 
The Shag’s untidy nest consists of all sorts of island grass or 
herbage, a herbarium in itself, or rather a rubbish heap. The chalky 
* The soft parts of a nestling Puffin at Fame Islands, believed to bo 
twenty-one days old, were as follows ; — mouth, nearly white; cere, yellowish 
white ; eye, nearly black ; legs, a dull flesh colour in front, dark brown 
behind. 
