518 
LAIIIDyE. 
room for nearly three days, and derived very great plea¬ 
sure from their company. During the day they were 
mostly inactive; and, after pacing about the floor for a 
short time, poking their heads into every hole, they hid 
themselves between the feet of the table and the wall. 
I could not prevail upon them to eat anything, though I 
tried to tempt them with fish and oil. Their manner of 
walking is very light and pleasing, and differs from that 
of every other bird which I have seen; they carry their 
bodies so far forward, and so nearly horizontal, as to 
give them the appearance of being out of equilibrium. 
In the evening, towards sunset, they would leave their 
hiding-places, and for hours afterwards never ceased in 
their endeavours to regain their liberty, flying round and 
round the room, or fluttering against the windows. When 
flying, their length of wing and the white above the tail 
gives them a good deal the appearance of our house mar¬ 
tin. The last night that they were with me, I went to 
bed and watched them in their noiseless flight long ere I 
fell asleep; but in the morning they had disappeared. 
One had fortunately made its escape through a broken 
pane in the window, which a towel should have stopped 
up ; the other had fallen into a basin full of the contents 
of the eggs which I had been blowing, and was drowned. 
I regretted much the fate of a being, rendered so inte¬ 
resting by its very remarkable, wandering, solitary, harm¬ 
less life. Before leaving Shetland, I again visited the 
island of Oxna; and, though so late as the 80th of June, 
the Petrels were only just beginning to lay their eggs. 
In Foula, they breed in holes in the cliff, a great height 
above the sea; but here, under stones, which form the 
beach, at a deptli of three or four feet or more, accord¬ 
ing to that of the stones, going down to the earth be¬ 
neath them, on which to lay their eggs. In walking 
