by pressure, as I generally did with the view of obtaining an uninjured skin: it vomits a most abominable
oil, in which float so many particles of brilliant green that it appears of that colour, though the stain it
leaves is yellow. The quantity ejected is sometimes enormous.

“When the young bird leaves the egg it is covered with a greyish-black down, except a stripe along the
breast and belly, which is white. I found a chick very lively in an egg which had been taken from the
burrow two days previously to my examining it. My notice was attracted by hearing a little voice in the
basket as I sat preparing a skin about midnight. I thought of Asmodeus in the bottle immediately.”

The above account is equally descriptive of the habits of the bird in other localities. When I visited
Malta and Gozo some years since, not a bird was to be seen during the day; but the fisherman assured me
that they were ensconced among the rocks, and that at nightfall they would set their nets and procure me
as many as I wished; this they did, and brought me half a sackful of living birds the next morning.

With reference to the Shearwater as seen in Shetland, Dr. Edmonston informed Macgillivray, ‘The bird
is not seen unless on the ocean during the day ; for it remains concealed in its hole ; and only in the twilight
can it be detected by the vigilant and hardy fowlers, who, from their great partiality to the young, regard
the discovery of their nests as a sort of treasure, which they bequeath as an heirloom to their sons. Its single
young one, though excessively fat, it must be confessed, justifies the epicurean taste of the fowlers. It is
rather strange that the young of sea-birds, although uniformly fed on fish, should be totally free from a
fishy taste, while the flesh of adults is almost always harsh, and often nauseous.”

“This bird,” says Mr. Low, “ is the chief acquisition our rock-men get for all the danger in climbing the
most dreadful precipices: for this, one sitting on the brink of the rock with a coil of rope made of hair on
his arm will let his neighbour many fathoms over the steepest rocks, such as would make others shudder to
look at; and-yet these people think no more of it than of an airing; and though few years pass without some
or other of them perishing, yet that never deters the survivors. It is really dreadful to see people let over
a-rock of several hundred fathoms height, with the deep below them, supported only by the single arm of
their comrades, who have nothing to rest themselves against, but must depend on their strength for the
preservation of both; sometimes, indeed, both slip together. The birds come to the rocks of Orkney in
February or March, and sometimes after their arrival deposit their single white egg in holes of the little
earth that it is to be found in the interstices of the rocks.”

“Its flight,” says Macgillivray, ‘‘is gliding, rapid on occasion, buoyant and easy. It flies low over the
sea, descending into the troughs of the waves, and mounting again. When hovering over an object seen
in the sea, it lets down its feet and pats the water with them. In dark or stormy weather it has an
ominous aspect as it glides rapidly along and disappears in the haze. Its food consists of various animal
substances ; but the particular kinds have not been determined, its gullet and stomach having usually been
found filled with decomposed matter and oil, which it vomits on being seized,” and which Mr. Wright
thinks is due, in the case of the Maltese birds, to their feeding upon Inula crithmoides. Respecting their
mode of feeding, Meyer says :—“‘ When a flock of these Petrels are thus employed, the birds are seen
swimming on the waves with their heads in the water, all in the same direction, and moving on very rapidly,
the hindermost bird always flying up and settling in advance of the foremost, like Rooks following a plough.
Fishermen when in pursuit of their calling watch carefully the movements of these birds, and when they
see them thus employed lower their nets with a tolerable certainty of finding the shoals of which they are
in search near the surface.”

T conclude my account of the Manx Shearwater with the following note from A. W. Crichton, Esq. :—

‘In furtherance of a desire to investigate the nesting-habits of the bird, I, on the 2nd of July, 1866,
descended the cliff of Altahuile, in Rathlin Island, co. Antrim, Ireland, by means of ropes to a depth of
between 16 and 17 fathoms, and after capturing the old female in the nest, placed at the extremity of
a fissure in the basaltic face of the cliff and as far in as my right arm could possibly reach, drew forth the
young one in an early stage of the downy state, which I have much pleasure in submitting to you for your
work.”

« Authors have often described,” says Thompson, “ flocks of birds which keep flying all day over the
Dardanelles and Bosphorus, and are never seen to alight either for rest or food; but only of late has the
species been positively determined. As remarked in Walsh’s ‘ Constantinople,’ ‘ one reason why they have
escaped the close attention of naturalists is that no person is permitted to kill any bird upon the Bosphorus
without incurring the displeasure of the Turks ;’ and, says the Bishop of Norwich, ‘ an additional reason
why they are held in respect by the Turks is that, in consequence probably of their restless life, they are
supposed to be bodies animated by condemned souls, thus doomed for ever to frequent the scenes of their
’ they are in fact called ‘ damned souls.

999

former existence 5

The figures represent an adult and a young bird in the downy state, both of the natural size.