SHEARWATER PETREL. 
515 
fulmar and stormy petrels—it would be very difficult to 
distinguish them. 
The young of this bird are held in such high estima¬ 
tion by the fishermen as food, for which they are annually 
taken, that I had great difficulty in obtaining the eggs, 
and not till I had offered a bribe could I prevail upon 
them to discover to me the places of resort of the Shear¬ 
water, which are known only to a few of the best and 
most daring climbers. Dr. Edmonston of Shetland, told 
me, that a knowledge of these nesting-places is kept as a 
family secret, and handed down from sire to son. 
The Shearwater Petrel seems to be very irregular in its 
time of breeding. The fishermen told me, in the begin¬ 
ning of June, that it would be quite useless to attempt 
seeking their eggs, and that they would not begin to lay 
for some weeks. Of those that were brought me on the 
fifth of June, some were quite fresh, whilst others had 
live young ones in them; the same thing occurred on the 
nineteenth of the same month. On the Island of Annet, 
these birds rear their young ones in burrows amongst the 
soft sandy soil, and lay their eggs either upon the ground 
or upon some pieces of fern, by which the island is over¬ 
grown. 
