BARN OWL.

(Photographed by Magnesium Flashlight.)

as I sat upon tlio beach, within a few minutes of midniolit. Stormy and Forked-tailed Petrels sleep on the sea when not engaged in breeding operations; but whether they take their rest by day or night, it is impossible to say. It would appear, however, from their habits during the nesting season, that they are diuinud sh^epers, for they are never to be seen on land during the daytime. I have spent days together on and near ground occupied l)y colonies, but never yet saw a member of either species, excepting when it was taken by force from its nesting burrow. They come forth at night and fcc^d their young during the hours of darkness.

At St. Kilda the breeding-holes of the Forked-tailed species are mixed up with those of thousands upon thousands of Puffins; and how a bird, in the dark, can distinguish its own burrow amongst such a bewildering crowd of others exactly like it, so far as human discernment can make out, is to me a mystery. Owls sleej) by day in thick holly bushes, in hollow trees, holes in rocks, amongst ivy growing round trees, in old ruins, and amongst deep heather and furze. The Barn Owl figuring in our illustration was photographed by means of a nuignesiuui flashlight in an old barn in Plssex.

These Ijirds are popularly sup})ose(l to conui forth only at nighttime, but such is by no means the case. When a Barn Owl lias a family of young ones to feed she may often 1)0 schmi on a, dull afternoon assiduoush' (piartei-ing a hedg(M'ow in search of j)re- long before; dark. A year or two ago, whilst staying with some friends near Leatherhead, 1 was standing under an apple tree in an old orcluird about live oVlock one cloudy

OWL MOBBED BY SMALL BIRDS.

245

July evening, when one sailed silently over a low hedge, and, instantly checking its flight, flopped into the long grass six or seven yards from where I stood, and secured a mouse, which it took off firmly grasped in one of its feet. I waited for a quarter of an hour or so, to see if she would come back to the same place, but she passed the orchard, and, going into some hayfields beyond it, soon returned with another mouse, which she held in her beak.

I have, whilst trout-fishing in the North of England, seen a Tawny Owl venture forth into a dark ravine in the middle of the afternoon and suffer a thorough mobbing by a crowd of small birds as he sat winking and blinking on a boulder.

The Nightjar is another bird which sleeps by day and roams along heathery hillside and over furze-clad common by night in search of its prey. It generally roosts upon the ground, and harmonises so closely with its surroundings that it is very difficult to detect until it has been flushed right under its disturber's feet. Sometimes the bird retires to rest on the branch of a tree or upon a rail, and does this in quite a different way from all other British birds. Instead of sitting across a bough, it lies along it, and thus very materially lessens its chances of discovery by the casual passer-by.

Some species retire much earlier to rest, and rise much later in the morning, than others. In the early spring Robins and Thrushes may generally be heard rattling off their notes when nearly all other birds have gone to rest, and on a fine evening often when the stars are blinking overhead. Grouse, Larks, and Wheatears, all rise so

earl 7 that they may be heard loii^- before tlicy can be seen. That some birds require very little sleep indeed, appears to be certain; for I have heard the Nightingale, Corncrake, and Peewit at almost every hour night, too. Many people haveof the day—and little idea that the first-named bird sings during the day-time, as its notes are all but drowned in the general woodland chorus.

The Sedge Warbler sleeps amongst nettles, in hedges and thickets; and if a stone or clod of earth be thrown into the place where it is roosting the bird will at once begin to rattle off its song.

That birds may, upon occasion, mistake the rising of the moon for the coming of another da}- I am fully convinced; for on the 3rd of June, I8O0, I had unmistakable proof of the fact at Slyfield Manor House, near Cobliam, Surrey. My friend, Mr. Robert Harker, and I retired to rest at midnight, and threw the lattice window of our bedroom wide open, in order to listen to the nightingales, which are particularly numerous in that neighbourliood. The moon was just rising, and we were astonished to hear a thrush commence to sing in close proximity to the house. There could be no mistaking the fact, for wo were both perfectly familiar with every note of the species, and tlio ])ird con- I luivetinued to sino- for some considerable time. also heard the cuckoo sounding his nanu' lustily when it was rpiitc^ dark. It is an interesting fact that such l)irds as stay Avitli us all the year round have about eight hours ; butmore rest in mid-winter than in niid-smnmer whether they spend a lot of this liiiio awake, or that a lowei- tem})eiature conduces to more sleep, it is (litHcult to say. Be this as it nia', however,

our observations upon House Sparrows incline us to think that they sleep sounder in sunnner than in winter; for durin^- the former season they are easier to approach and examine, with their heads buried in their featliers, than in the latter.

I think it will be found that the great majority of birds sleep in similar situations to those in which they have been bred; however, there are many notable exceptions to this rule. Pheasants are hatched on the ground, and roost in trees—after their aulumn moult at uny rate; Fieldfares nest in trees, and often sleep upon the ground, as I have proved again and again by Hushing them from bare fields on dark winter nights.

We have endeavoured to take photographs of birds on their roosts in sunnner-time, but found it impossible on account of the thick foliage. The accompanying picture of a red undervving moth in the act of sucking up an entomologist's rum and treacle from the bark of a tree, however, shows the possibilities of the magnesium flashlight.

RED UNDERVVING MOTH.

(Photographed by Magnesiitm Fla.iklUjht.)

CHAPTER VII.

SEA-BIRDS AND THEIR HAUNTS.

ALTHOUGtH at first sight this chapter may -^-^ appear to overlap to some extent those on St. Kilda and its feathered inhabitants, it will deal largely with birds which do not breed on the inaccessible home of Fulmar and Forked-tailed Petrels. The ])ictures and text have been brought together from such widely separated places as the Fame Islands, Bass Pock, Ailsa Craig, Inner and Outer Hebrides, and the Saltees off the south coast of Ireland. During our visit to the Fames last sunnner we were fortunate enough to be able to land upon the Megstone one calm day, and study, to ovu* liearts' content, the fine colony of Cormorants breeding-there. The sun was hot, and the air almost still, and directly we set foot on the rock our nostrils were assailed by the foulest imaginable stench, arising from pieces of fish in all stages of decom- ])osition, dead young l)irds tram})led to incredible flatness, and streams of liquid guano, which trickled down the sides of th(» crag, and stood in festering-pools in every crevice and declivity.

Upon our a})proa('li, most of flu* old birds took their depai'ture, and such of the young ones as were able to leave their nests began to splash

WUKTiE gobmohaxth bbekd. 249

and crawl their wav across the filthy rock. They appeared to be filled with terror, and trembled and cried out in the most piteous manner, disgorging all kinds of fish, and bedaubing themselves w^ith guano as tliev fled. Some idea may be gathered of the poisonous uncleanliness of a Cormorants' breeding station wdien it is mentioned that for years after nothing whatever in the shape of moss or lichen will g r o w u p o n rocks which these birds have used. One old female stood boldly by her nest and young ones, until my brother by careful stalking got within a few feet of her and CORMORANT AND YOUNG. made several photographic studies. It was quite laughable to watch the bird give the biggest of her three young ones a vigorous peck upon the head, and force it to lie down every time it ventured to make its presence known to us b\ lifting its head and taking a look round. Although our visit was paid as late as July 2nd, and many of the ypuno' Cormorants were

nearly ready to take to the.sea, I saw one nest containing- three perfectly fresh eggs.

We were much amused, to see two or three Lesser Black-backed Gulls, which may not inaptly be described as the Carrion Crows of the sea, take advantage of the enforced absence of the old Cormorants, and improve the shining hour by alighting close to us and picking up such unconsidered whiting and eels as had been disgorged by their terrified offspring.

Our full-page illustration opposite was obtained under somewhat })eculiar circumstances (detailed in Chapter XI.) on an isolated rock, curiously enough, also known as the Megstone, near the 8altees.

At the Knoxes and Inner Wide Opens, two islands of the Fame group, connected at low water by a ridge of boulders and shingle, dotted all over with bags of cement from a ship wrecked here years ago, the Sandwich, Arctic, and Common Terns breed in a vast colony, which, upon being-visited, deafens the ear, dazzles the sight, and paints the clothes. Terns, to my mind, are the daintiest sea-birds in existence, and by far the most wayward. When the colony is approached, its meml^ers all rise into the air like a cloud, and after twirling and twisting, screaming and figliting, for some time, they arc all of a sudden stricken with what appears to be a kind of momentary madness. Right in the middle of one of their most graceful evolutions and noisiest of protests, they become instantly silent, and dart with tremendous rapidity to right and left of the line of flight the majority of them were pursuing when overtaken by the strange imj)uls(\ The swish of their long sword-like wings ii[)on these occasions rends the air and startles the ear with a bewildering

CORMORANTS AND GUILLEMOTS ON THE SALTEES.

change of sound. I asked the watcliers (Darling and Patterson) if they could account for this strange behaviour, but, although they had often noticed it, they were quite luiable to suggest any explanation. The summit of the Knoxes, a low island formed partly of rock and i)artly of shingle and sand, is occupied almost exclusively by Sandwich Terns. When we visited it, most of the young birds had been hatched off, and were either crouching amongst the sand and shingle or running about, according to their age and strength. They varied much in colour, some being quite a dark huffish brown, and others a light creamy grey. The watchers assert that the down upon each chick's back corresponds in coloration with the eg^ from which it has been hatched.

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