. Pictures of bird life : on woodland meadow, mountain and marsh . ns and Guillemots may be passed,riding buoyantly over the billows. These, as the boat ap-proaches, suddenly dive, to come up again far away on theother side. The water is so clear and transparent that thebrilliant colour of the Puffins legs may be distinctly seenas they scull themselves along under water. Exceedinglycomical they look, with their trim, squat figures and im-mense, gaily coloured beaks. Ihery now and then one willpop iq) from below with a little silvery fish hanging fromits beak, and fly off with it to its solitar
. Pictures of bird life : on woodland meadow, mountain and marsh . ns and Guillemots may be passed,riding buoyantly over the billows. These, as the boat ap-proaches, suddenly dive, to come up again far away on theother side. The water is so clear and transparent that thebrilliant colour of the Puffins legs may be distinctly seenas they scull themselves along under water. Exceedinglycomical they look, with their trim, squat figures and im-mense, gaily coloured beaks. Ihery now and then one willpop iq) from below with a little silvery fish hanging fromits beak, and fly off with it to its solitary young one,anxiously awaiting its arrival at the mouth of the nesting-l)uir()w. Both they and the CTuillemots are as nuich athome below the surface as they are above it, and are mostexpert in catching such slippery customers as sand-eels andthe fry of various fishes. I/ic sight of the islands to which a visitor is alwaystaken first is the * Pinnacles, where the CTuillemots extraordinary scene it is too, and one well worth the 188 Pictures of Bird Life. jNestling Puffin {Fralercnla arctica) in Down at Mouth of Burrow. journey alone. Off one end of the largest island—called, 1tliink. Staple Island are four detached, fiat-topped rocks orstacks, risino- straiglit up from tlie sea to the lieight of fortyor fifty feet, so that the top of them is exactly level withthe end of the adjacent island, of whicli at one time theydoubtless formed a part. Ihe whole of the upper surfaceof tliese stacks is yellow-waslied from tlie droppings of tliebirds, whicli crowd together in such mnubers as to com-pletely cover the fiat tops. Nothing is to be seen but adense mass of (Tuillemots, so closely packed together tliata fresh l)ird coming up from the sea has some difficulty infinding standing-room ; and it is quite a common tiling tosee several birds standing on the top of their companions,struggling to squeeze in. The Sea=birds of the Fame Islands 189 Each of tliese birds is eii(>aoc
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirdspi, bookyear1903
