LIBRARY

1

DISPATCH OF THE ST. KILDA MAIL-BOAT

With Nature & A Camera

Being the Adventures and Observations of a
Field Naturalist 6? an Animal Photographer

By

Richard Kearton, F.z.s., F.R.P.S.

Author of " British Birds' Wests," " Birds' Nests, Eggs, and Egg-Collecting."

etc. etc.

ILLUSTRATED BY 180 PICTURES FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY

Cherry Kearton

POPULAR EDITION

Cassell and Company, Limited

London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne

1911

BIOLOGY

LIBRARY

G

First Edition November 1897.
Reprinted January <tnd April 1898, 1899.

New Edition February 1902. Reprinted April 1902, 1904, 1906, 1909-
Popular Edition February 1911. Reprinted April igii.

SIGUGT

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

THE MEMORY OF OUR BELOVED

FATHER AND MOTHER,

WHO NOW LIE SLEEPING WHERE
THE ROCK THRUSH PIPES HIS LONESOME NOTE

AND THE

MOORCOCK BECKS AT DAWN OF DAY

886661

WORKS BY R. KEARTON, F.Z.S., etc.

Illustrated from Photographs taken direct
from Nature by Cherry and Richard Kearton.

Keartons' Nature Pictures in 24 Coloured Plates,
72 Rembrandt Photogravures and Hundreds of Photo-
graphic Reproductions, with Descriptive Text by
R. Kearton. Complete in Two Handsome Volumes.
Cloth gilt, gilt top, 155. each net.

British Birds' Nests 15 Plates of Eggs, 6 Photo-
gravures, and 400 Illustrations. New and Enlarged
Edition. 145. net.

Wild Nature's Ways With Rembrandt Frontispiece
and about 200 Illustrations. Fifth Edition. 6s.

Pictures from Nature Being 15 choice Rembrandt
Photogravures of Birds and Animals photographed in
their natural surroundings. In Portfolio. IDS. 6d. net.

The Fairy-land of Living Things with Rembrandt
Frontispiece and about 160 Illustrations. Second Edition.
3s. 6d.

Nature's Carol Singers With Rembrandt Frontis-
piece and nearly 200 Illustrations. 6s.

The Adventures of Cock Robin and His Mate

With about 120 Illustrations. 6s. Cheap Edition. 33. 6d.

With Nature and a Camera With Frontispiece and
180 Illustrations. Eighth and Cheap Edition. 55.

Wild Life at Home : How to Study and Photo-
graph It Profusely Illustrated. Sixth and Revised
Edition. 6s.

Our Bird Friends With 100 Illustrations. Fifth
Edition. 35. 6d.

Strange Adventures in Dicky-bird Land illus-
trated. Fourth Edition. 33. 6d. ; cloth gilt, gilt edges, 55.

White's Natural History of Selborne With
Notes by R. Kearton, F.Z.S., F.R.P.S., and upwards of
120 Illustrations. Third and Cheap Edition. 33. 6d.

Birds' Nests, Eggs, and Egg-Collecting illus-
trated with 22 Coloured Plates of Eggs. 55.

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED, LONDON,
NEW YORK, TORONTO AND MELBOURNE.

PREFACE

UPON the appearance of my book — " British Birds'
Nests" — illustrated with photographs taken direct
from Nature by my brother, many of those who
reviewed it in the press suggested that I should
write an account of our adventures and observa-
tions whilst wandering up and down the British
Isles in search of subjects for our camera and
note-book. This I have done, and herein present
the result for the inspection and perusal of every-
body who cares to know anything about the wild
life of our country. In preparing the book we
have gleaned from many remote corners of England,
Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and the different
groups of islands lying round about; and whether
we have harvested ill or well we must, of course,
leave our readers to judge. But whatever may be
their verdict, I hope it is permissible for me to say
here that we have worked hard and honestly,
sparing no pains, danger, or expense in procuring
what we considered interesting or instructive.

We have slept for nights together in empty
houses and old ruins, descended beetling cliffs,
swum to isolated rocks, waded rivers and bogs,
climbed lofty trees, lain in wet heather for hours

viii PREFACE.

at a stretch, tramped many weary miles in the
dark, spent nights in the open air on lonely
islands and solitary moors, endured the pangs of
hunger and thirst and the torturing stings of
insects, waited for days and days together for a
single picture, and been nearly drowned, both
figuratively and literally; yet such is the fascina-
tion of our subject that we have endured ' all
these and other inconveniences with the utmost
cheerfulness.

One great disappointment to us is that our
labours cannot possibly be measured by our results.
As an instance of this, my brother journeyed to
the Highlands of Scotland on one occasion expressly
for a photograph of a Golden Eagle sitting on her
eyrie ; but in vain : he was obliged to return
without it.

The best pictures seem to have a fatal knack
of slipping from the grasp of the natural history
photographer, and the elements, alas ! too often
conspire to rob him of many a cherished hope.

What we have succeeded in bringing together
within the covers of this book represents practically
two or three limited summer holidays and such spaie
moments as the earning of our daily bread in the
turmoil of London would permit. During the spring
time we often turn out by three or four o'clock in
the morning for a ramble by field and hedgerow
before journeying to town, and the sweetness of
these happy tramps with camera and field-glass is
beyond the telling.

PUEFACE. h

We enjoy the gratification of having sent hosts
of amateur photographers into the fields to study
wild life for themselves, and hail with extreme
pleasure their efforts towards the attainment of pic-
torial truth and accuracy. In this book we tel]
exactly and candidly how we work, and can only
hope that the results we are able to show will still
further stimulate a desire amongst those to whom
we appeal to become better acquainted with the
birds and beasts of our land.

Of course, we cannot hope to please everybody.
Men who love the ideal and men who centre their
affections upon absolute truth do not sit harmo-
niously at meat together. Whilst regretting our
inability to meet the former entirely, we can say
that we have always striven to make our illus-
trations as picturesque as possible; but a necessity
of our mission has been to render effect subordinate
to accuracy, and the value of this will, I think, be
admitted upon comparing my brother's photograph
of a Fulmar Petrel with any picture of the bird in
existence made by a pencil.

Whilst the general public will, we hope, appre-
ciate our efforts and the results we have obtained,
the field naturalist and the practical photographer
alone are in a position to understand the true
character of our difficulties. The man who essays
the task of photographing a wild bird in its native
haunts, for instance, soon begins to think that, if
he has not succeeded in solving the mystery of
perpetual motion, he has discovered the creature

x PREFACE.

possessing the secret. We have spent hours and
hours and plates innumerable on some birds with-
out obtaining a result about which we could get up
any enthusiasm.

In regard to the text of this work, I can only
say that I have endeavoured to make it bright,
interesting, and accurate, and hope that I have in
a measure succeeded.

I doubt not we shall be accused of adventurous
foolhardiriess. I must plead that we are English,
and that our failing is a very common one amongst
young fellows bred and born on British soil.

In conclusion, my brother and I heartily thank
our friends in every part of the country for the
facilities and help so ungrudgingly rendered.
Landed proprietors, sportsmen, farmers, game-
keepers, boatmen, lighthouse-keepers, and others
have all combined most willingly to make this
book possible.

KICHARD KEARTON.

BOREHAM WOOD, ELSTREE, HERTS.
November, 1897.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
ST. KILDA AND ITS PEOPLE . . . . , . 1

CHAPTER II.
THE BIRDS AND FOWLERS OF ST. KILDA . . , , 56

CHAPTER III.
THE BIRDS AND FOWLERS OP ST. KILDA (continued) . 95

CHAPTER IV.
GAMEKEEPERS : THEIR FRIENDS AND FOES . 135

CHAPTER V.
EGGS, AND YOUNG 183

CHAPTER VI.
WHERE BIRDS SLEEP 231

CHAPTER VII.
SEA-BIRDS AND THEIR HAUNTS . 248

xii CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER VIII.

How CAGE BIRDS ARE CAUGHT : A DAY ON BRIGHTON

DOWNS 274

CHAPTER IX.
THE ART OF DUCK-DECOYING 295

CHAPTER X.
PEOPLE WE HAVE MET 311

CHAPTER XI.
OUR METHODS OF PHOTOGRAPHY 334

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Dispatch of the St. Kilda Mailboat frontispiece

Young Greenfinches (Tailpiece) xii

Shag and Kazorbill (Tailpiece) xvi

St. Kilda Village 4

St. Kildans landing Stores 7

Wooden Lock 12

Details of Lock 12

Antiquities from Underground Dwelling . . . . . . .15

Entrance to Underground Dwelling 17

St. Kilda Brooch 18

Unmarried Woman 20

Married Woman 21

Iron Lamp 22

St. Kildans bartering with the Factor 25

St. Kilda Mailboat 28

Facsimile of Portion of a Letter received by the Author per St. Kilda

Mailboat -^ . 30, 31

SoaLamb 39

Ankle Development 44

Cleit for storing Fuel or Hay .45

Driftwood bored by Teredos 47

Quern Stone 52

Dugan's Cave 55

Finlay McQuien catching Fulmars 65

A Good Catch 69

Wrens' Eggs 70

St. Kilda Wren 72

Mainland Wren 73

Nest of St. Kilda Wren 74

Puffin Noose 78

Finlay McQuien catching Puffins 79

The Strong Man's House 83

Fergusson fowling on Borrera 85

At the Foot of the Cliffs, Borrera 89

Gannet and Young 91

Gannets (Tailpiece) 94

Kittiwakes nesting on Doon 97

Young Shags 103

Young Razorbill , 105

xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAG*

Guillemots on Cliff .'.... 107

Finlay Gillies catching Puffins Ill

Puffin Gin 112

Martin's Fulmar 116

Fulmar Petrel on Nest • . . .117

Stack Biorrach 125

Horsehair Rope 126

St. Kildan Fowler 127

Puffin (Tailpiece) 134

Highland Gamekeeper and some of his Trophies 137

Adder Basking 139

Young Merlins 143

Kestrel in Trap 143

Stoat in Trap 144

Hedgehog 145

Figure-of-Four Trap 145

Young Raven on Nest . . . . 147

Buzzard in Trap . 147

Buzzard's Larder 149

Young Grouse . 150

Grouse's Nest in Rushes 151

Cat Trap .153

Grouse Netting 155

Snaring Grouse 159

A Couple of Veterans 161

Grouse Shooter in Butt 165

Pheasant Hatchery 167

Pheasant on Nest 168

Partridge on Nest 169

Partridge (Photographed on the Westmorland Hills after a Storm) . .171

Hare-Net on Gate 174

The Hare Caught 175

Rabbit Burrow (Closed) 178

Rabbit Burrow (Open) 179

Rabbits at Play 182

Hen Chaffinch hanged by a Hair 185

Wren going into her Nest in Rick 187

Kestrel's Eggs in a Raven's Old Nest 191

Oyster- Catcher's Nest 193

A Pair of Ospreys and their Nest 195

Robins' Nests in Odd Situations (four illustrations) 197

Flycatcher's Nest in Bullet-Hole 198

Tree Creeper 199

Bullfinch on Nest 201

Gray Wagtail on Nest 201

Clutch of Tree Sparrow's Eggs 203

Shrike on Nest 203

Coal Tit .205

Young Ringed Plover on Shingle . . 209

Young Ringed Plover on Black Cloth 209

Young Curlew Crouching 211

Young Curlew Standing Up 211

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xv

PAQK

Young Peewit 213

Blackbirds at Home (four illustrations) 215

Chiffchaff feeding her Young 217

Nightingale on Nest 218

Whitethroat on Nest 219

Young Carrion Crows in Nest 221

Young Spotted Flycatchers 222

Young Wood Wrens 223

Young Blue Tit 223

Jay and Young 225

Pied Wagtail's Nest and Young in Old Pail 227

Pied Wagtail going into Inverted Old Pail to feed her Young . . . 227

Young Thrushes 229

Spider's Web covered with Hoar Frost (Tailpiece) 230

Thrush on Sleeping Perch 233

Cock Sparrow 236

Nesting-Box . 236

Sparrow Catchers 237

Fully-fledged Swallows sleeping in Old Nest . . . . . .239

Barn Owl . 243

Red Underwing Moth 247

Cormorant and Young 249

Cormorants and Guillemots on the Saltees 251

Young Sandwich Tern on Sand 253

Young Sandwich Tern on Black Cloth 253

Terns at Home 255

Lesser Black-backed Gulls 257

Eider Duck on Nest 259

Wild Duck on Nest 260

Young Eider Duck ^ . 261

Kittiwakes ~7 . 263

Young Black Guillemot 264

Guillemots 265

Gannets on the Wing 266

Gannets on Bass Rock 267

Common Gull's Nest 268

Puffins at Home . 268

Nest of Black-headed Gull 270

Young Great Black-backed Gulls . 271

ScoultonMere 272

Razorbill and Egg (Tailpiece) 273

Clap-Nets and Dummy Starlings n . . . 276

Bird-CaU 278

Call-Bird Cage 278

Bird-catcher with Clap-Nets on Brighton Downs 279

Playstick and Lure Bird 280

Bird-catcher's Receiver 282

Bird-catchers and their Plant . . . 283

Finch Trap 287

Wild Chaffinch studying Bird-catcher's Dummy 290

Catching Chaffinches 291

Nightingale Trap 292

xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Robin in Bird-Trap

Snail on Grass-Stem (Tailpiece)

Decoy Pipe from Tail End

Entrance to Decoy Pipe

Cage for Decoy Ducks

Zigzag Screen : Duck Decoy

Peep-hole in Screen

Decoy-man making his Survey .

Dog's Hole

Decoy-man killing Wild Duck

Wild Duck on her Nest (Tailpiece)

Hebridean Peat Diggers

Crofter's Hut, Outer Hebrides

Landlord of the Highest Tnn in England

The Highest Inn in England

Essex Gamekeeper

Grace Darling's Nephew Robert

The Longstone Lighthouse (Tailpiece)

Our Outfit

Method of Descending a Cliff

Young Peregrine Falcons

Descending a Big Cliff

Carrion Crow's Nest

Photographing a Nest in a Tree

Sparrow-hawk's Nest and Young

Photographing a Kingfisher's Nesting-hole in a River's Bank .

Swallows on Telegraph Wire

Method of Photographing Birds' Nests Situated in High Hedges

Water Vole

Sparrows and Chaffinches on the Snow

Photographing Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Spider's Snare (Tailpiece)

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA

CHAPTER I.

ST. KILDA AND ITS PEOPLE.

A FTE R having* exploited ; $ri4<Jiy of the; favourite
•**• sea-bird breeding; stations; j^n ;th$ c £r/asts of
England, Scotland, and Ireland, we \^re very
desirous of an opportunity of visiting the paradise
of British ornithologists, and accordingly made
arrangements as far back as Christmas, 1895, to
accompany our friend, Mr. John Mackenzie, jun.,
on his annual visit as factor to St. Kilda.

We arrived in Glasgow early on the morning of
June llth, 1896, and after getting our luggage on
board the Dunara Castle, we went in search of a
supply of tinned provisions for ourselves and a
quantity of sweets and tobacco for the natives.

During the afternoon we were joined by our
friend, Mr. John Young, and had a telegram wish-
ing us success from the veteran naturalist of the
North — Mr. Harvie-Brown.

As soon as the windlass had ceased to rattle
and the last bag of meal was aboard, we dropped
down the Clyde and steamed away to the North.
The following day was spent in discharging cargo
at various Hebridean islands, catching flounders, and

13

2 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

speculating upon our chances of fetching St. Kilda
on the morrow. As an instance of the weather-
wisdom of the natives of the Western Isles, I think
it worth while to record the prophecy of a shrewd
old man — an inhabitant of Loch Boisdale — at sun-
down on the twelfth. He said that on the following
day we should have a strong breeze from the south-
east in the morning, a shower about dinner-time,
and a south-westerly wind with sunshine in the
afternoon.

Early on the morning of the thirteenth we arrived
at weird and lonely Obbe, our last calling place
before attempting to breast the rolling waves of the
Atlantic, and carry the, first news of the doings of
the outer lw#rld , Sufijrg- :the year of Grace eighteen
hundred and* ttin-ety^ix to the isolated folks living —

"Where the northern billows in thunder roar
And dash themselves to spray on Hirta's lonely shore."

Our captain very much doubted whether we
should be able to land at St. Kilda on account of
a stiff breeze which was blowing from the very
worst of all possible points of the compass, viz.
the south-east. When the wind is in this quarter
it fills Village Bay — the only place in which a
ship can find shelter — with such fearful seas that
it is exceedingly dangerous to enter.

The official pilot, a wrinkle-visaged, weather-
beaten old man, who came aboard at this place,
was, however, like the seer of Loch Boisdale, hope-
ful of an early change in the weather, and advised
a trial,

Whilst landing two or three passengers, a
friend of mine showed me a small, whitewashed,
stone cairn, built upon a rock for the guidance of

NEA11ING ST. KILDA. 3

navigators, on the top of which a pair of great
Black- Backed Gulls had made their nest and laid
three eggs the previous year.

When we got clear of the Hebrides, and were
fairly launched upon the bosom of the mighty
Atlantic, the waves began to make themselves felt,
and to render the after- deck uninhabitable except
for such as could don oilskins. By-and-by the
Hiaskers loomed black and weird on our port.
We were told that these rocks are visited in October
by fishermen in order to kill Seals and extract the
oil from their bodies.

Towards noon the weather thickened consider-
ably, and a drizzling rain commenced to fall.
The steamer was now rolling and pitching to
such an extent that most of her passengers lost
all interest in wallowing Porpoises and plunging
Gannets, and experienced those unpleasant sensa-
tions which for a time rob all natural objects of
their charm.

When we must have been quite twenty miles
away from St. Kilda, I noticed a couple of dead
Kittiwakes float past the ship, and directly after-
wards my friend Mackenzie pointed out a Fulmar
Petrel flying along on our starboard. The bird is
easily distinguished from the Gulls by its astonish-
ingly graceful gliding flight. It seems literally
to slide over the crests and through the hollows
between the waves. I many times thought that the
curling crest of a breaker must overwhelm one that
was flying towards it ; but the billow was topped
without a wing flap, and with the utmost grace
and ease.

Speculation was rife amongst such of the pas-
sengers as were well enough to be on deck as to
the distance and direction of our gonl. I knew that

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

we were not
many miles
from it, and
that we were
travelling in
the right
direction, be-
cause of two
encouraging
signs — bird-
life was in-
creasing : and
nearly all the
companies of
Puffins, Guil-
lemots, and
Razorbills astir
were heading
straight in the
same direction
as we were
steaming.

A little
after noon the
wind began to
veer round to
the south-west,
and by two
o'clock it was
quite fair, and
the clouds
commenced to
lift, when a
cry went up
of "Land
ahead ! »

IN VILLAGE BAT. 5

The sight was sublime. In front of us loomed
the gigantic rock, with its summit buried in white
mists, and its base surrounded by a fringe of foam
left by the broken billows.

As we passed Eock Lavenish the ship got the
full benefit of wind and tide on her port, and,
in consequence, rolled fearfully. Her decks were
often at such an acute angle that the sailors them-
selves were obliged to hold on to whatsoever stable
article lay within reach. No sooner, however, had
we got inside Village Bay than the sea became
almost as smooth as a mill-pond, and everybody
was on deck, gazing intently at the weird scene.
The sombre grandeur of the place was as awe-
inspiring as the most dreadful page in Dante or
Milton, and required the pencil of a Dore to do
justice to its sublimity. The booming of the tide
in the caves that run beneath the Doon sounded
like the growl of chained monsters that had made
a meal of the men and women who had once lived
in the straggling line of primitive-looking dwellings
standing at the foot of steep Conagher without a
sign of life near them.

During the spring a bottle had been picked up
somewhere amongst the Western Isles with a letter
in it, purporting to have been sent from St. Kilda,
with the information that a Spanish ship had
been lost there during the winter, and that sixteen
rescued sailors were waiting to be taken off. A
couple of Glasgow pressmen had accompanied us,
and endured all sorts of hardships and discomforts
that the dull work- a- day world might enjoy reading
of the adventures and hairbreadth escapes of the
survivors. I observed them wistfully scanning the
shore in search of some evidence of the castaways,
and felt genuinely sorry for their disappointment

6 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

on discovering that the whole business was a cruel
hoax.

The St. Kildans had no knowledge of the date
of our coming, and the dogs, numbering between
thirty and ^ forty, were the first to discover our
presence in the bay and tear pell-mell down to
the water's edge. The dogs of Hirta — which is the
Gaelic name of St. Kilda— are a distinct feature of
the place, and whenever a boat is being launched
or hauled in there they all are congregated at the
water's edge, engaged in furious barking, which
generally ends in a fight, and a bundle of three or
four, closely locked together, rolling into the sea.

As nobody was to be seen, our captain blew
the ship's whistle, but although he succeeded in
making a prodigious din which echoed and re-
echoed amongst the crags, causing the sheep to
scamper away up the steep hill-sides, he produced
not a sign of human life on the place. After
waiting a few minutes, he sent forth another loud
blast, which frightened the Kittiwakes off their
nests and sent them wheeling like a little snow-
cloud across the bay. In a while, a small boy,
who was evidently more curious or energetic than
the rest of the population, came running down to
the shore to gaze at us. Nearly every writer who
has visited St. Kilda has noted this seeming in-
difference of the natives to the arrival of strangers,
and commented upon it. I think that the clean,
shining faces, and smooth, glistening hair of the
women, and general Sunday appearance of the men,
afford an explanation. They are caught in what
they consider an unpresentable state, and the time
taken up between the arrival of a boat in the bay
and the putting off of the natives is occupied in
washing and tidying themselves up a bit.

8 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

By-and-by a boat put off and came alongside.
I was particularly anxious to hear the first words
of salutation from men who, though actually living
within the confines of the British Isles, are in reality
more out of touch with their country than the natives
of Vancouver Island or Timbuctoo. As I could not
get on deck in time, I popped my head out of a
port-hole, and was startled to hear the minister wish
everybody "A happy new year."

When we got ashore, we found most of the
women and children had come down to the place
of landing with great checked handkerchiefs full of
birds' eggs, chiefly those of Guillemots and Razorbills,
for which they found a ready sale at a penny a
piece amongst the passengers and crew.

The first two things which struck me upon land-
ing at St. Kilda were the apparent dearth of sea-
bird life and the joyous songs of the Wrens.

We climbed to the empty cottage in which we
were to stay, and after sweeping out the plaster
that had fallen off the walls during the preceding
twelve months and lighting a fire on a grateless
hearth, we began to set things to rights. The
place being half buried in the base of a steep hill
called Oisaval was fearfully damp, and when my
brother, with the instinct of the photographer, com-
menced to prowl round in search of a " dark" room,
the boards were in such a rotten condition on the
ground floor that he fell through.

After tea we walked down to the beach to
watch the natives bring their provisions ashore. The
men conveyed the bags of meal and flour from the
steamer to the rocks in their boat, whilst the women
performed the far more arduous task of carrying
them on their backs up the steep path to the
cottages.

THE CHURCH SELL. 9

Each family consumes in a year nine bolls of
oatmeal and flour, averaging out at one hundred
and twenty pounds per head per annum ; which
is, according to the factor, twenty-eight per cent,
more than the Hebridean ordinary crofter supplies
himself and his family with.

We slung our hammocks in two upper rooms of
the empty cottage, and turned in at midnight pre-
pared to bid extravagantly for sleep ; but, alas ! just
as I was dropping off, I heard a resounding bump
on the floor and an indistinct muttering in the next
apartment. It was our friend, Mr. John Young,
who being somewhat rotund of form, had fallen out
of his bed of string, which unfortunately had not
been shapen for turning-over in. The next night we
turned a long form with a high back face to the
wall for his accommodation, and thereafter he slept
in a kind of crevice from which there was no means
of accidental escape.

We arose early the following morning, and, it
being the Sabbath Day, we prepared for service.
Eleven o'clock came round, but there was not a
sign of anybody astir on devotions bent. We
waited with patient curiosity until half-past twelve,
when an old ship's bell, erected on the top of a
wall near the church, began to summon worshippers
to the House of Prayer by a weird out-of-place
kind of tinkle, tinkle, tinkle. In our ignorance we
supposed that time was a little out of joint on the
island, but afterwards learnt that the indulgent
minister, Mr. Fiddes, had considerately given his
little flock an hour and a half's grace out of
compassion for them, on account of their extra
toil and exertion in landing their provisions the
previous day.

The church, which is also used as a day-school,

10 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

slopes considerably from the door at which the
people enter to the end at which the pulpit or
rostrum stands. The floor, except just beneath the
feet of the worshippers, where there is a loose
scaffold board, consists entirely of Mother Earth.
The aisle is roughly laid with cement, put down by
the minister's own hands. We were told a good
story about a supply of cement sent to St. Kilda
for this purpose by some generous donor. The
citizens of Village Bay are never in a hurry, and
after the " bags of dust" arrived at the island, they
put them down outside the church to wait. When
an inquiring friend turned up the following summer
and asked how they had got on with the floor-
laying, they told him that the " bags of dust" had
by a miracle all turned into lumps of rock before
they had had time to use them.

The service was conducted in Gaelic, and con-
sisted of reading the Scriptures, singing the Psalms,
prayer, and a very long sermon, all of which I
flatter myself I sat under for the space of an hour
and a half without lowering an eyelid, although I
understood not a single word uttered. The collection
was taken in two boxes, affixed to long handles.
With these the platemen easily gathered the harvest
of coppers as they walked up the aisle, without
pushing in front of the congregation or bothering
anybody for assistance in getting the boxes up and
down the pews. They were primitive, but exceed-
ingly sensible kind of boxes.

As soon as the minister had left, the women
all filed silently out of church before a man stirred
from his place. I was greatly pleased with this
custom, thinking it to be a courteous deference
shown to the fair sex of St, Kilda, whose industry
and modesty render them entirely worthy of it,

THE BOUSES IN ST. KILDA. 11

but have since learnt that it is a lingering relic of
Roman Catholicism which is still in force on the
Continent. In evidence of the religious fervour of
the St. Kildans — which can, I suppose, to some
extent be reckoned up by census methods — I
noticed that over seventy-five per cent, of the
entire population were in church.

If Mr. Sands faithfully recorded what he saw
at this place in the 'seventies, when the people
went to church u with sorrowful looks, and eyes
bent upon the ground like a troop of the damned
being driven by Satan to the bottomless pit," and
no one spoke to another above a whisper, or could
look to the right or left without considering he
had sinned, a very great improvement has taken
place in the direction of reason and cheerfulness.
Directly we got out of church, they all doffed
their bonnets and shook hands with us, and such
as were able to asked us how we were and chatted
with us all the way up the path to our cottage.

All the houses in St. Kilda, excepting one of
which more hereafter, are substantial one-storey stone
structures with zinc roofs securely fastened down
by iron bands. They contain two rooms, each of
which is lighted by a small four-pane window.
Although they have fair- sized chimneys, some of
which are even surmounted by earthenware pots,
they are generally full of smoke for some reason
or other, which is, I think, to be sought in the
peculiar conformation of the hills around them.
They are far ahead in point of comfort and con-
veniences of nearly all the crofters' dwellings I
have been into in Harris, Uist, and other Hebridean
Isles.

As the stranger walks along the path in front
of the houses, he is struck by three things — the

12

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

strong smell of Fulmar oil, the plenitude of birds'
wings and feathers on the midden heaps, and the
numbers of birds' eggs that adorn nearly every
window.

Whether they mistrust each other in Hirta or
not I do not know, but I was somewhat surprised

WOODEN LOCK.

DETAILS OF LOCK.

to find that in a community where ciime is unknown
they had ingeniously- constructed wooden locks on
all their cowhouse doors. The fact that the cow-
houses were once dwelt in by the people themselves
cannot be accepted as a satisfactory explanation,
inasmuch as they have — instead of utilising the old
locks for their dwelling-houses — made new ones,
although oak and other kinds of hard wood are

AN UNDERGROUND DWELLING. 13

particularly scarce on the island. The locks and
keys are made entirely of wood, save for the
two or three nails holding together the parts
of the former. I bought one as a curiosity,
and the illustrations on the opposite page will to
some extent explain its construction. A small
piece of hard wood working up and down a
perpendicular kind of box inside the lock drops
into a mortise in the bolt, and effectually prevents
it from being withdrawn until the hidden perpen-
dicular bolt, for such it may be described, has
been raised by the key, which is fashioned so as
to fit into a part of it.

There can be no manner of doubt, I think,
that St. Kilda was inhabited close upon, if not
quite, a thousand years ago ; for in digging out
and restoring an underground dwelling known
amongst the natives as the " fairy house," which
had been only partially explored and to a great
extent destroyed by a previous visitor, we came
across the objects represented on the following
page. The particulars about the choicest of our
finds have been kindly supplied to me by my
friend Dr. Anderson, Curator of the National
Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh, whither they
were sent by the chief, MacLeod, who owns the
island, and who generously insisted upon defraying
the entire cost of excavating and restoring the
subterranean dwelling.

The iron spear-head on the right hand side of
the picture is a weapon of war belonging to Viking
times, and is in all probability a thousand years old.
The conical- shaped stones belong to the same period,
and were used, it is thought, as net sinkers or loom
weights. They were cracked and split, a condition
due no doubt to some extent to the kind of stone

14 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

from which they had been made, but probably ex-
aggerated in the case of one of them (which we
were obliged to tie together with string before it
could be photographed) by the fact that it had been
heated, as it bore traces of having lain in the remains
of a peat fire. The St. Kildans said that these
stones were used in former times for putting into
the foot of a stocking and dashing out the brains of
invading enemies, some of whom called to kidnap
able-bodied men to serve in their ships in place of
hands washed overboard during stormy weather.

We found a lot of fragments of earthenware
vessels half an inch thick, and so blackened on the
outsides as to lead us to suppose they had been
placed on a fire for cooking purposes. They were
in all probability made on the island and used in
the Viking times. Such vessels were manufactured
and used all over the Western Isles of Scotland,
from a very early period down to the time when
the steamers brought Staffordshire ware into fashion.

The other implements figuring in the picture
consist of hammer-stones, whetstones, rubbing-stones,
or grain-crushers, and hollowed stones which may
have been used as lamps. Curiously enough one of
the lamp-stones we found was almost exactly similar
in size and shape to one still in use on Borrera.

The entire credit of properly investigating and
restoring this interesting home of primitive man
belongs to our friend, Mr. John Mackenzie, jun.,
who takes a great deal of interest in the history of
the place. Some idea may be gathered of the con-
dition of this strange relic of bygone days from
the picture taken of it before we commenced dig-
ging, and the fact that four or five feet from the
entrance the passage was completely blocked up
with earth and stones, which were overgrown with

16 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

ferns of the most delicate green tint I have ever
seen. As I was anxious to possess some of these
undamaged, I wriggled my way inside and secured
a few, which are now growing in my little Hert-
fordshire garden.

The dwelling is something in the form of a
huge drain, some thirty or forty feet in length,
four feet in height, and three in width, with a
passage of somewhat similar capacity, but only
about nine cr ten feet in length, running at right
angles to it on the left hand side, and about half
way from the entrance. This is, I believe, supposed
to have formed the bedchamber of the people who
inhabited the rude house, the entrance to which
commands an excellent view of Village Bay. This
last fact was, no doubt, of great importance, in
order that the people might have early knowledge
of the approach of enemies. Neither had the
owners of this underground mansion been un-
mindful of the benefits of some sort of sanitary
arrangement, for we found a drain beneath the
floor, made, no doubt, to carry off the slops from
their crude earthenware bowls. We also came
across a lot of limpet shells and bones of sheep
and birds of various kinds.

Many theories have been advanced as to the
origin of the inhabitants of this lonely rock, and
a curious tradition exists as to its acquisition by
members of the outside world. The inhabitants of
Harris and Uist agreed to make it the prize for a
boat race, and accordingly set out to row across
the intervening waste ot waters. So equally matched
were the crews in regard to pluck and endurance
that they arrived at St. Kilda almost at the same
moment. The Uist men, however, led by a few
strokes, and hopes of winning ran high amongst

ENTRANCE TO UNDERGROUND DWELLING.

18

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

them when Colla MacLeod, the chief of the Harris
gang, chopped his left hand off and flung it ashore
over the heads of his competitors, and secured St.
Kilda and its satellites to himself and his descendants
for all time.

My friend Mackenzie says that the progenitors
of the St. Kildans were undoubtedly transported
from Skye by the Chief of MacLeod for various

_________ offences, and in

evidence of this
points out that
whenever there
is a row in that
island the re-
storers of peace
will still threaten
to send the dis-
turbers to St.
Kilda. Further,
that mothers say
to their children
when they are
troublesome, "If

you don't be quiet, I'll send you to St. Kilda," just
as a Lancashire dame will terrify her unruly off-
spring by threatening them with the bogie man.

The order of things in St. Kilda is sometimes
a good deal reversed. For instance, the men make
all the women's clothes, whilst their future wearers
dig the potato-beds or pull dock-leaves for the cows.
As a result of this, the dresses are neither fashion-
ably made nor very close-fitting. I saw one young
woman in church with her frock skirt hung upon
her hips by the aid of a large French nail, the
head and an inch or so of which protruded awk-
wardly from the material it was pinning together.

8T. KILDA BROOCH.

THE WOMEN OF ST. KILDA. 19

This, however, did not abate my respect for the
woman one jot, as I would infinitely rather see a
member of the fair sex with her attire stuck full
of French nails than one decorated with birds'
wings.

The younger women wear hats and bonnets
whilst in church, but the elder ones still adhere to
the picturesque, many-coloured handkerchief and
shawl over their shoulders. I was considerably
struck by the brooches with which they fasten their
shawls. These are of two sorts — one, a large
copper ring, said to be made from an old penny
beaten out, and the other consisting simply of a
ship's brass washer, with a wire pin attached to it.
In both cases the sides of the shawl to be fastened
are pulled through the ring and then transfixed by
the pin.

I was much puzzled by seeing the women
tramping about amongst the grass in the enclosure
round the Tillage bare-foot and bare-leg with their
skirts tucked up to their knees, pulling dock leaves.
It turned out upon inquiry that the cows refuse to
be milked unless they are being fed the while with
this weed. Poor women of St. Kilda ! theirs is a
hard lot. They shoulder an immense load of dock
leaves which they carry up the tremendously steep
hill separating the Village from the Glen, where
the cows are milked, and often fetch back an
equally great load of turf in addition to their
buckets of milk. They also milk a number of ewes
on the island, but although we tried every device
to get them to allow my brother to photograph
them in the act we failed. They would not permit
this to be done for love or money, under the im-
pression that people who saw the picture would
laugh at them.

'

UNMARRIED WOMAN.

MARRIED WOMAN.

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

The married women are distinguished from the
unmarried ones by a white frill which is worn in
front of the head-shawl or handkerchief and serves
the part of a wedding ring, which is unknown in
St. Kilda.

As illustrative of the love of gaudy- coloured

apparel existent amongst
the women of this lonely
isle, Seton says, " When
the Rev. Neil Mackenzie
went to St. Kilda

in

1830, his servant-maid, a
native, asked permission
to take the hearth-rug to
church by way of a
shawl. Regarding her
proposal as a joke he
innocently assented, and
to his infinite astonish-
ment he beheld the girl
in his own pew enveloped
in the many - coloured
carpet, the envied of an
admiring congregation !
All the women in the
island were eager candi-
dates for the ' shawl '

on the following morning, some of them offering
to give ten birds for its use."

Side by side with much that was picturesque
and delightful in its primitive simplicity, we came
across things of appalling modernity: such as a
woman wearing a Piccadilly fringe, a piece of barbed-
wire stretched round the minister's garden, and a
youth sporting a dicky. It is wonderful to think
that within the confines of the British Isles on the

IRON LAMP.

OLD LAMPS, AND NEW. 23

eve of the twentieth century, it is still possible to
find a man sitting on Friday night in a rude semi-
underground house lighted only by the primitive
stone lamp of his forefathers of prehistoric times ;
arid still more so, perhaps, to reflect that the same
man may on the following Sunday so far link the
distant past with the present as to be sitting in
church with a dicky and tie on, and a copy of the
Bible printed in Gaelic on a book-rest before him.
Yet such is the case.

When the St. Kildans go to Borrera to pluck
the sheep or catch birds, they stay in a semi-
underground hut — which I shall describe hereafter
— containing a lamp of the Stone Age still in use.

We were able to trace the history of illumin-
ation at St. Kilda with a fair degree of complete-
ness. First of all we saw the stone lamp on
Borrera, then an iron one from which the illus-
tration on p. 22 was made, and lastly a cheap
paraffin abomination which, when alight, consider-
ably increased the horrors of darkness. Its small,
foul smelling flame was burning dimly within a
smoke-blackened globe unrestricted by anything in
the nature of a chimney.

We noticed that the natives were fearfully in-
quisitive, but scrupulously honest. Martin, who
visited the " lone isle" just two hundred years
ago, says that the inhabitants " use swimming and
diving, and are very expert in both." To-day,
according to Mackenzie, not a single man or
woman enters the water unless it be by accident.
He relates that when he first began to visit the
place as factor, he went down to the Bay one
morning to have a swim. So unusual was the
sight that the entire population rushed down to the
beach to watch him. This led to an extremely

24 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

awkward situation, for the women squatted them-
selves down beside his clothes. He swam round
and round for a while in the hope that their
curiosity would ere long be satisfied, and that they
would then return to their household duties. Not
a bit of it. The sight of a man performing the
part of a fish was far too entertaining a business
to be regarded with indifference, and they sat on
enchanted until he swam close in and told them to
go away.

Mr. Fiddes, the minister, told me that the tem-
perature of the sea round St. Kilda is lower in
summer than in winter, on account of the icebergs
that become detached in Polar regions and drift
southwards into the Gulf Stream. He also in-
formed me that he was at that moment disproving
the assertions of horticulturists that strawberries
could not be grown in so high a latitude as that
in which he lived by producing the fruit in his
own garden.

I leave horticulturists to crack this nut for
themselves, and hasten to present a much more
startling one for ornithologists from the same gen-
tleman. He told me in all good faith and sincerity
that Great Northern Divers make no nest at all,
but hatch their single egg under their wings, in
which position he had himself seen a bird carrying
one.

Upon re-telling this astounding story to Mac-
kenzie his gillie overheard it, and afterwards told
me that the minister was quite right, as three
independent witnesses, including his own brother,
had, whilst sitting on the cliffs of Skye one Sunday
afternoon, witnessed a Great Northern Diver lay
her egg in the sea below them, and dive after and
catch it before it reached the bottom. On rising to

26 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

the surface again the bird tucked her egg away
under her wing and swam off. When I showed
my scepticism in regard to the accuracy of the
reports of this wonderful performance he said, " Ah
weel, sir, if ye dinna believe it, I will no believe
your story that Cuckoos put their eggs into other
birds' nests with their nebs." This had reference
to a conversation he had heard between his master
and myself, during which Mackenzie told me that
he once shot a Cuckoo with its egg in its bill.

The factor and the people were soon hard at
work buying and selling oil, feathers, and cloth, on
the one hand, and pails, spades, and similarly
useful articles, on the other, down at the storehouse
by the sea.

We stood by for a few minutes to watch the
market, shown in the picture on the preceding page.
The chattering and excitement were incredible.

In the afternoon of the same day all the women
and children assembled in our cottage to munch
sweets and go through the packages of many-
coloured kerchiefs, shawls, and petticoats the factor
had brought with him for their inspection and pur-
chase. And for six mortal hours did Mackenzie,
poor man ! withstand with the utmost equanimity
a continuous fusilade of questions and badinage.
But this was not all. At eleven o'clock at night
a soft tap-tapping was heard upon the door, and
in they all trooped to re-open their bargaining. I
wonder what the average Bond Street shopkeeper
would say to being invaded at this hour by a crowd
of lady customers who had been unable to make
up their minds in the afternoon.

A St. Kilda woman always regards everybody
with suspicion, and does not hurry over a purchase,
thinking that she is being cheated.

ETIQUETTE. 27

The Western Isles form a happy hunting-ground
for a number of Jew pedlars, and one of these
found his way to St. Kilda on the steamer which
came to take us off. No sooner had this man opened
his bundle of gaudy wares than he was surrounded
by an excited crowd of women and children, who
began to handle and examine every tiling he had.
I saw the minister's servant-girl seize a brilliantly-
coloured petticoat, and rushing up to her reverend
master thrust it in his face with childish glee and
beg him to buy it for her. I mention this as
evidence of the innocent simplicity of these remote
people.

One of the civilities demanded by the etiquette
of the place is that you shall shake hands with
everybody you come in contact with night and
morning. The first thing they ask you in the
morning is whether you have had a good sleep.
If an answer in the affirmative be given they are
satisfied, but if, on the contrary, you have not
enjoyed a good night's rest, they follow up their
solicitation after your welfare by inquiring whether
you have eaten a good breakfast. Should this be
the fact, they think you have no serious reason for
complaint ; but should the contrary be the case,
they are alarmed, and show a great deal of natural
sympathy.

Although extremely pious and well-behaved, they
are deeply interested in the great life and death
struggles of the outer world; and one of the first
questions they ask, upon being visited by strangers,
is whether the Queen is at war with any other
country, and, if so, who is getting the best of the
conflict. Nothing delights them more (men and
women alike) than to hear that the enemy is being
smitten hip and thigh.

28 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

For nine months in the year the inhabitants of
St. Kilda are doomed to an utter ignorance of the
doings of the outer world unless some stray fishing
smack should, under favourable conditions of wind
and tide, venture to drop in and see them. They
have, however — through the initiative of Mr. John
Sands, I believe — improved upon poor Lady Grange's
method of trying to communicate with friends during
her eight weary years of exile in these desolate
regions. It is recorded that this unfortunate woman

ST. KILDA MAILBOAT.

wrapped up letter after letter with yarn in pieces
of cork, and consigned them to the sea in the hope
that some day one would be wafted to where some
pitying hand would find a means of delivering her
from a bondage brought about through some dis-
agreement with her husband, Lord Grange, whose
friends kidnapped the unhappy lady in 1732, and,
after forcibly detaining her on some small Hebridean
island a while, conveyed her to St. Kilda, where
she is said to have spent a great part of her
time in weeping.

When the natives now desire to send news of
any happenings on the island to their friends, they
cut a cavity in a solid piece of wood roughly
hewn like a boat, and, putting a small canister or

ST. KILDA MAIL BOAT. 29

bottle containing a letter and request that whoso-
ever picks it up will post it to its destination (a
penny being enclosed in the boat for that purpose),
they nail a lid or hatch over the cavity, with the
letters of the words " Please open" crudely cut on
the top of it. To the boat is attached a bladder
made from a sheep's skin, and the whole is cast
into the sea during the prevalence of a westerly
wind. I was assured that an average of four out
of six of these interesting little mailboats are
picked up either on the shores of Long Island or
Norway, and their contents forwarded to the people
whose hands they are intended to reach. Such as
find their way to the Norwegian coast are sent to
the Foreign Office in London, from which venerable
institution they emerge again in due course, accom-
panied by an official document often exceeding them
many times in length. I was so much interested
in these miniature mailboats that I got a man who
was accustomed to make them to construct one for
me absolutely complete in every particular. I had
it put in the sea so as to observe its behaviour,
and in order that my brother might have an op-
portunity of photographing the man in the act of
despatching it.

As I had expressed a desire to hear from the
St. Kildans during the winter by means of one of
their miniature mailboats, they dispatched one con-
taining three letters for me at eleven o'clock on the
morning of March 24th, during the prevalence of
a north-westerly wind. On the 31st of the same
month it was picked up by a shepherd in a little
bay at Vallay, North Uist, and its contents for-
warded to me by post. The letters had been
placed in a small tin canister, and despite the fact
tli at they had become soaked with sea water, they

*

B

let

fc/

&-. . ,

**>**•»•)

[Facsimile of portion of a Letter received

.X

/bjH*A.

[ly the Author per £*. Kilda Mailboat.}

32 WITH NATURE! AND A CAMERA.

still retained a delightful aroma of peat smoke when
they reached my hands, reminding me forcibly of
my stay on the island.

Martin, in his entertaining account of a visit
paid to St. Kilda in 1697, as already mentioned,
after praising the good looks of the people, says,
" The present generation comes short of the last in
strength and longevity. They showed us huge big
stones, carried by the fathers of some of the in-
habitants now living, any of which is a burthen
too heavy for any two of the present inhabitants to
raise from the ground, and this change is all within
the compass of forty years. But notwithstanding
this, anyone inhabiting St. Kilda is always reputed
stronger than two of the inhabitants belonging to
the Isle of Harris or the adjacent isles."

Curiously enough, the same pessimistic belief in
the physical degeneracy of the human race is rife
to-day in many Yorkshire dales, and old men will
as evidence of the fact point out huge stones in
the remains of ancient dry walls that mark long-
forgotten divisions of the land, and say that no
man now living could lift them, forgetful of the
fact that in all probability they never were lifted,
but simply rolled into their present situations
over smaller stones placed conveniently for the
purpose.

The same historian whom I have just quoted
also recorded the fact that men of Hirta had
" generally but very thin beards." They have
evidently taken the reproach to heart, for nearly
all of them have now thick bushy ones.

The highest population record of the place
known is two hundred souls all told, and the
lowest reached, a few years back, sixty. At the
time of our visit in the summer of 1896 there

MYSTERIOUS MALADIES. 33

were seventy -three people on the island, including
the minister and his serving-maid.

Formerly the infants of St. Kilda used to be
nearly all carried off by a mysterious malady
known as " eight -day sickness." The disease gener-
ally manifested itself by the little stranger refusing
to partake of nourishment on the fifth day after its
advent into the world, and proved fatal on the
eighth. So great were the odds in favour of every
child born dying before the completion of its eighth
day, that mothers never thought of providing cloth--
ing for their babies until they had passed the
period of danger. The reason for delaying the
preparation of infant garments will be understood
when it is mentioned that two mothers in St. Kilda
had had twenty-eight children between them, and
only succeeded in rearing four. But thanks to Mr.
Fiddes, who now brings the St. Kildans into the
world, marries them, and buries them, all this has
been changed. By proper treatment and the use
of antiseptics, he has stopped the ravages of the
disease ; and all honour to him for his conquest.

" Stranger's cold" is another remarkable affection
which invariably attacks the islanders on the arrival
of a boat. It is a kind of influenza of which the
natives stand in great dread, and the factor told
me that he was afraid even to blow his nose in
the presence of any of them, lest they should, in
the event of its breaking out amongst them, accuse
him of ( having brought it.

The malady is of great antiquity, for Martin
gave offence on the occasion of his visit by telling
the people that he thought their " notion of infection
but a mere fancy."

During our stay on the island there were one
or two cases of illness. One old man's condition
P

34 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

became so serious that his wife was heard chanting
over him, evidently in the belief that the time had
come to sing his praises in the usual form of a
death dirge. She was a little too previous, how-
ever, for by a judicious administration of brandy
and bovril in small alternate doses, we set the old
fellow on his legs again in a few days. The
other case was that of a poor old maid who lived
all alone in an ancient straw-thatched hut close to
our cottage. I went with my friend Mackenzie one
morning to take her a cup of something com-
forting, and found her lying in a huge sort of box>
surrounded by two or ihree cats, which even in St.
Kilda are associated with old maids. In front of
the entrance to the box-like bedstead on which this
old woman was lying were four thick flags driven
into the ground so as to form a rough kind of
square, in the centre of which smouldered a small
turf fire. Directly over this, and suspended from
the roof-tree, was a long, smoke-blackened chain
used for hanging kettles and cooking-pots on.

Whilst we were on the island a doctor came to
vaccinate the children, but so small was the faith
of the natives in Jenner's great discovery, that he
was obliged to take his departure without having
operated upon a single child. Perhaps they did
not understand that he had come in order to pre-
vent a repetition of the terrible disaster their for-
bears suffered in 1724, when an awful visitation of
small-pox swept away the entire adult male popula-
tion of the place with the exception of four, who
were catching Gannets on Borrera or Soa at the
time of the outbreak. As there was nobody left
to man a boat and fetch them off, they remained
from August of one year to Whitsuntide of the next,
and thus escaped the ravages of the terrible scourge,

TASTE FOR SWEETS. 35

St. Kilda is the only place in the whole of
Scotland where drunkenness is unknown, although
it is said that all the inhabitants keep a supply of
whisky by them for use in cases of illness. Such
admirable self-restraint is worthy of all praise. They
could have had no great acquaintance with intoxi-
cating liquors even in Martin's time, when they
were much gayer and livelier than they are now.
He says : " One of the St. Kilda men, after he
had taken a pretty large dose of Aqua Vitce, and
was become very heavy with it, as he was falling
into a sleep and fancying it to be his last, ex-
pressed to his companions the great satisfaction he
had in meeting with such an easy passage out of
this world. For, said he, it is attended by no kind
of pain."

Henry Brougham says that when he visited St.
Kilda in 1799 the people had " an excessive eager-
ness for spirits and tobacco." This certainly is not
the case now. Only four men besides the minister
smoke, and, although I took a supply of tobacco
with me on purpose for them, they showed no
great eagerness to possess it. Their taste for
sweets, especially " bull's-eyes " and peppermint
lozenges, was much stronger than for either drink
or tobacco. Strangely enough, several comparatively
recent writers have stated that they " saw no par-
tiality for sugar and sweets " ; but this we certainly
observed, the men often holding out their big brown
palms along with the children when " sweeties "
were being distributed. As a further illustration
of the existence of this taste for saccharine dainties,
I may also mention that the young women and
children fetched us a supply of delicious new milk
every evening in return for a handful of sweets
all round. So fully does the factor recognise the

36 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

pleasure these lonely folks derive from sucking sweets,
that he takes a large supply with him every year.

In addition to enjoying a unique character for
sobriety, St. Kilda can also boast the distinction of
being the only inhabited part of the British Isles
which has not been officially surveyed by Her
Majesty's Ordnance Department.

We were told that some of the older people of
the community knew the Bible by heart from cover
to cover; but, being ignorant of the Gaelic tongue,
we were unable to put this remarkable assertion to
the test.

At the end of the seventeenth century the
St. Kildans played jews'-harps, and danced to the
music of the bagpipes, u which pleased them ex-
ceedingly " ; but now they have neither music nor
dancing, nor amusements of any sort. I innocently
asked the minister one day what kind of games
the children played. The old man smiled good-
naturedly at my ignorance, and answered: "None
whatever ; their parents would consider it frivolity
to have them taught anything except climbing
rocks, catching sheep, and such other things as will
become necessary to them in after-life." The aus-
terity of the doctrine inculcated by the Free Kirk
of Scotland has been blamed for this gloomy strict-
ness; and, whilst acquitting the minister of any
bigoted abuse of reason, I " am willing to believe
a deal in the way of religious intolerance on the
part of the terribly earnest body he represents ; for
I once had the ill-fortune to listen to a theological
dispute betwixt a number of Free and Established
Kirkers, which looked much like ending in employ-
ment for a surgeon, if not an undertaker.

Whatever the cause, I can certainly testify to
the fact that the St. Kildans do not now appreciate

THE LOVER'S STONE. 37

the music of the pipes ; for whenever Sandy Camp-
bell, the factor's gillie, started a refrain upon an
instrument — which, by the way, had been heard
by many a dying Russian on the heights of Alma
— the people scuttled out of our cottage like rats
from a doomed ship. It is, I believe, an affecta-
tion in the South to cry down the sound of the
pibroch ; but to my hill-bred Yorkshire ears its stir-
ring refrains when heard across a Highland loch or
floating up a wild, craggy glen are simply grand,
and I cannot imagine any man with a heart as
big as a hay-seed who couldn't fight anything
or anybody to its music. I don't think it is
generally known that, on the authority of Shake-
speare, the bagpipes were at one time played in
England.

In olden times, pluck was considered even a
greater virtue than it is to-day in St. Kilda. This
is proved by the fact that every young man who
considered himself brave enough to deserve the fair,
was obliged to give a public exhibition of his daring
on the Lover's Stone — a projecting piece of rock
with nothing except two hundred feet or so of thin
air betwixt it and the waves below. As soon as
all the islanders had assembled at the invitation of
the love -sick youth, he walked out on to the very
end of the crag, and standing upon the outer edge
of it on his left heel put his right to the toes of
his left, and then stooped until he touched the toes
of his right foot with the finger-tips of both hands.
In this perilous position he was obliged to remain
until those around him expressed themselves satisfied
that he had vindicated his claim to manhood and
fitness for a wife.

At this period,, an old writer says, the women
married very young — about thirteen or fourteen

38 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

years of age — and "gave suck to their children
for two years."

My brother photographed the ancient Lover's
Stone, but, unfortunately, a tantalising accident has
robbed us of the chance of using the picture in the
present work.

I was telling my friend Captain McCallum, of
Glasgow, about hearing the sea make a noise in
the caves of St. Kilda one night, like the booming
of distant cannon, when he laughed and told me
that it reminded him of a great scare the people
had some years ago. A woman woke up suddenly
one night convinced that she could hear the big
guns of the dreaded Sassenach or Saxon, of whom
they formerly — and, no doubt, with good reason —
stood in great awe. She at once aroused everybody
in the village, and they all fled to the rocks, where
they remained until daylight convinced them that
they had had their slumbers broken by a false
alarm. An enemy wishing to land on the island
would, I am persuaded, have to go about his busi-
ness very stealthily. Sandy Campbell, the abhorred
piper, told me that he had visited the place seven-
teen years in succession as factor's gillie, and landed
at all hours of the night, but never once got in-
side Village Bay without being seen by someone
ashore. The dogs, many of which seem to be
always left prowling about outside the houses at
night, give the alarm, as I discovered when wan-
dering about in the small hours of the morning
studying bird-life and habits.

I could not get any trustworthy information as
to the number of sheep and cattle owned by the
members of the little island commonwealth, as it
was, or was fancied to be, in their interest to con-
ceal the exact figures from the factor. I should

THE SOA SHEEP. 39

say from what I saw whilst on Soa, Borrera,
and all over St. Kilda, that a thousand sheep and
from twenty-five to thirty head of cattle would be
a fairly correct estimate.

They make cheese from a mixture of cows'
and ewes' milk ; but I must confess that it was
to me poor, tasteless stuff, lacking salt or flavour.

SOA LAMB.

On Soa exclusively is to be found! a flock of
from two to three hundred peculiar little brown
sheep, supposed to be descendants of a few in-
dividuals left upon the island by Vikings who
called to renew their supply of fresh water. These
sheep, like those of Iceland, which they are said
to resemble closely, are liable to produce an ad-
ditional pair of horns, although I failed to discover
any evidence of the fact when I examined the flock
through my binoculars. They are absolutely wild,

40 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

and the St. Kildans have a particularly primitive
and, I might add, extravagant method of capturing
them which I had the good fortune to see in opera-
tion. A sick man had expressed a fancy for some
broth made from a piece of Soa lamb, and, as we
were going to work the island with camera and
note-book, we took a dog or two in the boat with
us. These dogs had their fangs broken, and by
the aid of their barefooted masters, who sprang
from rock to rock with great nimbleness and not
a little excitement, literally ran down one of the
timid creatures. As the sheep raced madly round
the little island, they came close past where I stood,
and the way they bounded from crag to crag, and
skipped in single file along dangerous ledges, was
simply astonishing.

My brother set up his camera and tried to
photograph them as they passed him in full career,
but the comparative slowness of his apparatus, an
instantaneous shutter, and the great speed at which
the animals were travelling, produced nothing but
elongated marks of confusion against the great
grey rocks on the negative. He did, however,
succeed in making a picture of a lamb caught by
one of the dogs and held until its master came
upon the scene. This barbarous method of catch-
ing the sheep invariably ends in some of the
terrified creatures going over the cliffs and being
swept away by the fierce tides flowing in those
quarters. The factor told me that he had volun-
teered to supply the people with nets, in order that
they might catch the sheep with more humanity
and less waste of life, but his offer was declined.
They preferred the good old methods that supplied
plenty of danger and excitement — two forms of enter-
tainment very dear to the impulsive Celtic heart.

A SHEEP FOR HALF-A-CUOWN. 41

The loss occasioned by sheep being blown over
the cliffs is considerable, but in Soa this is to a
great extent compensated by the remarkable fecun-
dity of the animals. Macaulay says that he was
told a single ewe added nine sheep to the flock
in thirteen months. " She had brought three lambs
in the month of March, three more in the same
month the year after, and each of the first three
had a young one before they had been thirteen
months old."

Clipping-shears are unknown in St. Kilda, and
the wool that does not drop off or cannot be pulled
off the backs of the sheep is cut away with pocket-
knives.

My friend Mackenzie told me that the people
wanted to cross the original breed of Soa sheep
with Scotch black-faced ones, but that MacLeod, of
MacLeod, the proprietor, had very naturally objected,
and taken the island over himself. He said that
when folks talked of half-a-crown as being the
remarkably low figure at which a whole sheep
might be purchased in the Antipodes, they little
dreamed that there were people in the British Isles
paying only the same price for the best and sweetest
mutton in the world, as MacLeod only charges the
St. Kildans two shillings and sixpence for each
sheep they take away from Soa to kill.

Whilst passing round the back of St. Kilda one
day in a boat I noticed a curious heap of stones
on a grass-clad ledge far down the face of the awe-
some cliff; and as the collection looked too regular
for a mere accidental gathering I asked how it
came there, and was told that the wee cairn had
been piled up by a man who was lowered by means
of a long rope every autumn on to the handbreadth
of rock with a sheep which he left to browse on

42 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

the few mouth fuls of luscious grass for three or
four days. That any sane being should risk so
much for so little seemed to me incredible.

Captain McCallum told me an amusing anecdote
about a poor old woman who accompanied her kins-
men on a journey from St. Kilda to Harris in the
days when they used to visit the latter place in
their large boat. On the occasion in question night
fell before a landing was effected, and when they
did succeed in getting ashore it was on an un-
known part of the coast. In searching for some
kind of habitation the old woman accidentally got
separated from her companions, and fell in with
an object of supernatural brilliancy at which she
marvelled greatly — a lighthouse. It being a sultry
night the keeper had left the door open, that he
might benefit by the improved ventilation. The
old woman mounted the tower stairs in great awe,
and when she came into the presence of the attend-
ant and the dazzling brilliancy of his lanterns' rays
she fell on her knees and began to address him as
the Almighty. The man was, on his part, so startled
that he concluded the aged St. Kildan was some
hag from the nether regions, to which he bade her
get back in language more forcible than polite.

A somewhat similar thing is said to have hap-
pened near London in the early days of ballooning,
when an aeronaut alighted in a ploughed field at
Coulsdon, in Surrey. A labourer who happened to
be working close by at the time was so overcome
with fear at the unusual sight that when asked the
name of the place by the man who had dropped
from the clouds, he fell on his knees and replied :
" Coulsdon, if you please, God Almighty!"

The St. Kildans enjoy a plentiful supply of
good water: how good I will leave poor old Martin

THE WELL OF QUALITIES. 43

to tell, for, although I am a teetotaler, he drank
far more than I either could or would. He says :
" Of the well of Qualities or Virtues I drank twice,
an English quart each time.'7 I do not think there
can be any question as to the nobility of a man's
thirst who can swallow so much cold water, of
whatsoever quality, at a single draught, and this
singular feat half inclines me to believe in our
author's theory, dealt with earlier in this chapter,
anent the declining capacities and endurance of the
human race, for " the present generation comes
short," certainly, of his in its thirst for cold water.
He further adds that "the inhabitants of Harris
find it (the water of the well of Qualities) effectual
against windy colics, gravel, and headaches " ; but,
being troubled with none of these disorders during
my stay close to it, I had no opportunity of putting
its efficacy to the test. The inhabitants of this
remote rock are, aquatically speaking, still further
blessed ; for, according to the same enthusiastic
authority, there is another fountain on the island,
the water from which ' ' will wash linen without
soap as well as other water will with it."

Some idea of the roughness of the sea in these
parts during a westerly gale, coming straight from
the bosom of the Atlantic, may be gathered from
the fact that waves have been known upon occa-
sion to leap over a part of the Doon, three hundred
feet in height, and pour down the slope into
Village Bay in great green and white cataracts.

Martin noticed that in hauling their boats up
the rocks out of the sea the natives employed " a
cryer, on purpose to warn all at the same minute,
and he ceases whenever he finds it convenient to
give them a breathing." Exactly the same practice
holds good to-day; and so long have the people

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

hauled their boats up in one particular spot that
the rock is grooved by the grinding of innumerable
keel-plates.

In that chronicler's time there were about eighteen

horses on the island, but now there is not a single one.

Two hundred years ago the St. Kildans took

care to keep their graveyard " perfectly free and

void of any kind
of nastiness " ; 'but
now, alas, it is
neglected and over-
grown with nettles
and other noxious
weeds, from the
midst of which I
saw a single head-
stone peeping, grey
and gaunt, like a
weird sentinel over
the sleeping dead,
who are, after all,
in such an utterly
out - of - the - world
place, only a little
more asleep than
the poor creatures
who linger round them still able to hear the boom
of the sea breaking upon the rocks at their feet:

One of the first things that struck me as peculiar
about the St. Kildans was the abnormal size of
their ankle joints and the thickness of their insteps.
So much was I impressed with this specialised
development — brought about, no doubt, by long
generations of rock and steep-hill climbing — that I
had the foot of a man, corresponding as nearly as
possible in point of size and weight with myself,

Author's Foot. St. Ktidan't Foot.

ANKLE DEVELOPMENT.

CLEIT FOR STORING FUEL OR HAY.

46 WITH NATUEE AND A CAMERA.

photographed side by side with my own in order
to show the difference.

From Martin's time down to quite recently,
according to the testimony of various writers, the
fair-complexioned members of the community appear
to have been iu the majority, but the dark ones
now have the ascendancy in point of numbers.

Their fuel consists of turf stripped from the
hill sides, and stored in the numerous cleits which
are dotted about all over the place like mere heaps
of stones carelessly thrown together and surmounted
by a few sods. The entrance to nearly all these
curious structures is barred by half-a-dozen stones
roughly piled one upon another, but some of the
largest and best have wooden doors to them, as
shown in our illustration. The object propping the
door up is the jawbone of a whale, probably be-
longing to a dead leviathan which was seen floating
past in 1886 and towed into Village Bay, where it
melted so fast in the hot sun that the St. Kildans
secured only 150 gallons of its oil. These cleits,
which have been estimated to number no less than
five thousand individual buildings, are of very
simple construction, consisting of two parallel side-
walls three or four feet apart and four or five feet
in height, with rough lintel stones across the top,
on which is piled a quantity of turf so sloped as
to keep out the rain. The wind rushes through
the side-walls at a furious rate — as I can testify,
having spent a night in one — and dries whatever
is placed in them.

The Gulf Stream occasionally takes charge of a
plank washed off an Atlantic timber boat and lands
it in Village Bay. I saw several lumps of wood
that had come ashore in this way, but most of it
had been rendered useless by the burrowings of

A DRIFTED BUOY.

47

innumerable teredos. The accompanying picture
shows the havoc wrought by these little creatures
in a piece of timber I picked up and brought
home as a curiosity.
The Gulf Stream
played the St. Kil-
dans rather a cruel
trick not long ago.-
A man whilst out on
the hill - tops one
afternoon had his at-
tention attracted by
the most bewildering
object he had ever
gazed upon. It was
a great blood - red,
conical thing bobbing
about in the sea
away to the west.
After watching it for
a moment, he rushed
madly down to the
village with the
strange news. A boat
was at once launched
and pulled round the
end of the Doon,
where it fell in with
the astonishing prize
which, from its re-
markable appearance

and shape, was adjudged to be of great value. As
there was a good deal of sea running at the time,
and the size and shape of the prize made it some-
what unmanageable, it took a long time and a
great deal of hard work to get it home and hauled

DRIFTWOOD BORED BY TEREDOS.

43 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

into a safe place. When this had, however, been
accomplished, they had nothing to do but speculate
often and lavishly as to its value, and the fortune
it would probably make for them all when its
owner turned up to claim it. Alas, when the
factor called the following summer, it was dis-
covered to be only an old iron buoy that had
broken loose from its moorings in New York
harbour and drifted across the Atlantic. It now
lies at Dunvegan, in Skye, an object of consider-
able curiosity to trippers, but not beloved of any-
body hailing from St. Kilda. It was afterwards
discovered to have taken two years to cross the
Atlantic.

There are a number of domestic Fowls on the
island, but their owners hold them in no great
esteem, as they say the birds eat more than they
are worth. When the enormous supply of sea-
birds and their eggs is taken into consideration,
I don't think this can be wondered at.

At one time Seals used to visit St. Kilda in
such numbers that the steward took part of his
dues in those the people caught. I was assured
that this amphibian seldom comes near the place
now, a fact which affords a curious example of
the changing habits of animals.

We saw one or two Sharks swimming about
in and around Village Bay, with their great dorsal
fins standing out of the water dark and ominous.
The natives said that their presence argued the
oncoming of rough weather, but it did not arrive
with particular boisterousness whilst we were there.

The young women and children used to come
and sit in our cottage every evening for an hour
or two, knitting and munching sweets whilst they
listened to a round of funny stories, which they

THE ST. KILDANS' LOVE FOB THEIR ISLAND. 49

enjoyed heartily. I amused them highly on one
occasion by putting my brother up for auction as
an eligible young man who could climb cliffs, catch
fowls, photograph, and flirt. As I couldn't get a
bid I offered him for a sovereign. An old maid,
who couldn't speak English, informed me through
the factor that she wouldn't give me sixpence for
him. Not to be outdone, I at once gave her a
pressing invitation to accompany us back to London,
in order that she might get to know him better on
the road; but she answered, with the traditional
suspicion of her race, that she wouldn't go if I
gave her as much money as MacLeod had, as she
was too much afraid we should throw her over-
board.

The St. Kildans have a deep love for their
rocky home. I playfully invited several of them
to accompany me on leaving the island, but they
shook their heads, and told me they couldn't live
without " going to the rocks." I think that this
attachment to the land of one's birth is a, thing
proportionate to its isolation. My own heart often
pines for a breath of moorland air, and in my
dreams I hear the Curlews crying far away on
lonely hilltops. I knew a little girl, living high
up in a wild Yorkshire dale, who was compelled
by force of circumstances to move away with her
parents into a big Lancashire manufacturing town.
One day some of her relations sent a pound of
fresh butter as a present, wrapped up in dock
leaves. The little girl's heart remained so true to
the land of her birth that she seized one of these
and said — "Let me kiss it, mother; it has come
from dear old Muker."

I had heard and read a good deal about
the unblushing greed and covetousness of the
E

50 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

St. Kildans, and must admit that I was staggered
when one of them asked me in laboured English
" ten shilling " as an inducement for him to put
back a Wren's nest where he had found it — inside
one of his cleits — in order that my brother might
photograph it.

Seton records an instance of some of them going
on board a ship that put into the bay, and after
having a good look round and satisfying their
curiosity, expecting to be paid for so doing. A
similar thing happened whilst we were on the island.
One evening a smart little yacht put in, and the
impetuous Irish skipper to whom she belonged
was so anxious to show his hospitality that he
dragged some of the natives who had boarded
him down into his saloon by their beards and
placed a supply of whisky and biscuits before
them large enough "to fill the biggest cow in St.
Kilda," according to their own account. This
gave them a magnificent opinion of him, and they
sang his praises loudly when they came ashore.
But his popularity was short lived, for he greatly
upset them next day by giving them nothing, and
threatening to kick them all overboard when they
showed some reluctance to leave his boat without
further reward.

It has also been said that the people expect to
be paid for having their photographs taken. The
men never objected to our photographing them, nor,
so far as I could gather, expected anything for
allowing us to do so, though had they done we
could not have had serious reason for complaint.

I was anxious to obtain two pictures in order to
show the difference in the head-gear worn by
married and single women, and offered half-a-
crown each to anybody who would sit; but to my

THE QUEEN OF ST. KILDA. 51

surprise no one would consent, and it was only by
strategy, and a positive assurance that their por-
traits were not being taken to make fun of them,
that we succeeded in obtaining what we wanted.

Before passing judgment on these poor creatures,
it is only fair to them to take evidence on both
sides of the question of their selfishness, and then
throw in a little consideration for the influence
of their utter isolation and the folly of tourists
and other visitors who have done much towards
the destruction of that ideal state of unworldli-
ness which characterised them only as far back
as 1697, when they " contemned gold and silver
as below the dignity of human nature."

A curious custom prevails of electing the most
beautiful spinster on the island Queen of St. Kilda.
She can, however, only fill this exalted functionless
office so long as she remains single.

A little while back the inhabitants of a large
Northern English town by some means or other
got to know that the reigning Queen of Hirta
was to be married on a certain date. A crowd
of holiday-makers straightway chartered a steamer,
and departed to witness the sight with something
like a hundred pounds' worth of presents for the
bride; but they were baulked of their pleasure,
as the young woman's father would not allow his
daughter's marriage to be made the subject of
entertainment to a mob of vulgar Sassenachs;
consequently the trippers had to return with their
presents unpresented and their curiosity unfeasted.
Such a wholesome assertion of dignity and denial
of selfishness cannot be too highly praised ; for
from what I saw of the behaviour of some ex-
cursionists who visited the island whilst I was
there, I have small doubt but that the old man's

52 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

estimate of the real object of the wedding-present
folks was correct.

Whilst we were about on the different islands
with the men, those who took anything to drink
in the shape of milk or whey with them in the
boat gave us freely of their beverage if our own
supply ran short; and after they came to know

QUERN STONE

what manner of man I was, some of them would
not accept anything for specimen birds which they
caught for me. Again, on the morning of my
departure from the island, I was rowed to the
steamer in the local boat along with a number
of excursionists who had been paying a hurried
visit ashore. When we got midway betwixt the
land and the vessel, one of the St. Kildan rowers
took off his bonnet and began to make a collection,
as payment for the boat and men. I was putting
a shilling into the hat when the man stopped me

A LOCAL PARLIAMENT. 53

and said that he wouldn't accept anything from
me — I was one of themselves.

To sit 011 a boulder of rock in the strangers'
gallery of a parliament, where all its members stand
and speak at once in an unknown tongue, is a
curious experience, which I have had the pleasure
of indulging in. The St. Kildans meet every
morning — either in front of one of their cottages
or on the rocks below the storehouse — and discuss
how they shall go about the business of the day.
One or two of the debates, at which I was present,
became so animated and the din so prodigious
that I thought the matter must inevitably end in
blows and bloodshed; but I was greatly mistaken,
for after awhile some satisfactory understanding was
arrived at, and they all went forth harmoniously
to share the toil and danger of the day.

The cliffs of St. Kilda and the adjacent Isle
of Doon are divided into lots, which change hands
each year, so that everybody may in due course
stand a chance of getting a fair share of birds
and eggs. Those of Borrera, Soa, and the rock
stacks are common property ; and whenever they
are raided the proceeds are divided amongst the
members of the community, in order that the
aged, widows, and orphans may receive a fair
share. The profits of the boat are also shared
by all the members of the Commonwealth.

In several parts of the village we saw relics of
bygone days in the shape of quern stones, in
which the corn was formerly ground, and my
brother photographed one standing, half full of
water, on a low wall in front of a cottage.

In Martin's time they had but one steel and
tinder-box in the whole place, and when the men
made a journey to Borrera, or Soa, on wool-

54 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

gathering or fowling intent, the owner — for the fire-
making tools were private property — used to levy an
impost, called a " fire penny tax," of three eggs
or one fowl from each man for striking a light.
Our author, however, destroyed the value of this
secret, and astonished the natives by showing them
how to get a light by striking the blades of their
pocket knives against a piece of " chrystal growing
under the rocks."

They also had to pay a similar tax to the man who
took his cooking-pot to these isles for general use.

Amongst other curious traditions rife among the
natives is one to the effect that two men, named
Dugan and Ferchar, whilst pulling heather for fuel
on Oisaval, plotted a diabolical scheme to murder
the whole of the inhabitants at one fell stroke.
They rushed down the steep hillside and gave the
alarm of an approaching fleet of warships, and as
soon as all the people had assembled in the church
for safety the two dastards set fire to a quantity of
dry heather which they had placed against the
closed door and smothered every soul except one
old woman, who escaped by stealth to the rocks,
where she managed to eke out an existence until
the steward's avenging boat came the following
spring, when she crept forth, to the surprise of the
murderers, and divulged their black crime. Ferchar
was placed on a rock-stack near Borrera to live
on such birds as he could catch, or starve, but he
chose to end his miserable career by flinging himself
into the sea immediately after the boat that left
him rowed away. His fellow-culprit, Dugan, was
placed on Soa, where his bleached bones, and a
dirk stuck in the ground beside them, were after-
wards found in the cave represented in our picture,
which is known to this day as Dugan's Cave.

DUGAN'S CAVE.

CHAPTEE II.

cliffs of St. Kilda and its adjacent islands
are of the most majestic description. The
highest hill, Conagher, stands twelve hundred and
twenty feet above the level of the sea, and on one
side it plunges almost sheer into the ocean below,
thus constituting, according to one authority, the
highest precipice in the British Isles. I sailed
under it twice, and walked — or, rather, crawled on
all fours — along its edge, and can hardly tell
which was the more wondrous and awe-inspiring
experience.

Whilst climbing up and down some of the
gigantic bulwarks of Hirta I was several times
forcibly reminded of fearful nightmares when a
boy, and do what I would I could not maintain
an upright posture in some of the most fearsome
places even when I had a perfectly safe footing.
This fact may be laid hold upon by some student
of Evolution as an interesting instance of an in-
stinctive return to some remote ancestral method
of progression. Anyway, I can safely aver that
it felt a deal more secure.

When on the top of the highest cliff it was
impossible to hear the surf beating at its foot.
Parts of it are never visited by the daring fowlers,
for the simple reason that they have no ropes

BIRDS OF ST. KILL A.

57

long enough to negotiate them. The St. Kildans
are wonderful fellows on the crags, and most of
the performances we saw them go through were
done without the aid of a rope ; but, of course,
their bare feet, thoroughly hardened and inured to
the touch of the sharp rocks, give them a great
advantage over men who wear boots and socks
every day of their lives. Their heads, too, being
used to the dizzying heights from childhood are
absolutely unaffected by any vertical depths how-
ever great.

The following is a list of the birds I saw and
identified on the islands : —

Fulmar Petrel (Fulmarus gla-

cialis).
Manx Shearwater (Puffinus an-

glorum).
Forked-tailed Petrel (Cymo-

chorea-leucorrhoa) .
Great Black-backed Gull (Larus

marinus).
Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus

fuscus).

Herring Gull (Larus argentatus}.
Common Gull (Larus canus).
Razor-bill (Alca tor da).
Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla).
Guillemot (Uria troile).
Black Guillemot (Uria grylle).
Puffin (Fratercula arctica).

Shag (Phalacrocorax gracutus).
Gannet (Sula bassana). \simd).
Eider Duck (Somateria mottis-
Whimbrel (Numenius phceopus).
Oyster-Catcher (Hcematopus os-

tralegus).

Dunlin (Tringa alpina).
Raven (Corvus corax).
Hooded Crow (Corvus comix).
Starling (Sturnus vulgar is).
Wheat ear (Saxicola cenanthe).
Rock Pipit (Anthus obscurus).
Tree Sparrow (Passer niontanus).
Twite (Linota flavirostris).
Bunting (Emberiza miliaria).
Swallow (Hirundo rustica).
Wren (Troglodytes parvulus).

The Barn Swallow visited us once or twice, but
only hawked round for an hour or so on each
occasion and was gone.

The Whimbrel was dead, having been stalked
by one of the natives and caught with his fowling
rod — a very clever performance indeed when the
shy nature of the bird is taken into consideration.

58 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

The Tree Sparrows are quite numerous for such
a small place. I found five or six nests, all con-
taining young ones, in holes in the stone walls
and cliffs. I noticed one day, whilst out in a
boat, a young Tree Sparrow taking his first lesson
in the art of flying. He started from the face of
an overhanging crag a couple of hundred feet high,
and so weak and ineffectual were his wing-beats
that he came down towards the cold blue water
below, with his affectionate little mother flying
round and round him in a series of spiral curves
and greatly alarmed. At last he fell flop into the
sea, and I thought it was all over with him. My
heart was full of sorrow for the poor little fellow,
as we could not reach the spot in time to save him.
Just as I was reflecting upon the dangers to which
young birds are subjected on leaving the nest, 1
was surprised to see the unfortunate fledgling rise
from the crest of a wave, and by a tremendous
effort fly to a jutting rock of safety a few inches
above the tide-mark, where his mother joined him
and showed a great deal of anxious solicitation for
his welfare.

I observed that whenever the sun shone, which
was not often during our stay, the Tree Sparrows
would hop about in the grass of the field surround-
ing the village looking for flies and other winged
insects, many of which they caught by a short
hawking flight a couple of feet or so straight up
in the air. After three or four of these pretty
little vertical flutters they generally flew away to
their nests with their prey.

Two or three great Black-backed Gulls from
Lavenish — a bare rock upon which these birds breed
close to the island of St. Kilda — were constantly
hanging round Village Bay, waiting for anything they

GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULLS. 59

could pick up either on the kitchen middens of the
inhabitants in the very early hours of the morning
before anybody was astir, or on the handbreadth
of sandy beach later in the day. The first Sunday
evening we were at Hirta I watched one through
my binocular make his supper off a dead Gannet
which came floating into the bay. His mode of
procedure was somewhat odd. He swam round and
round the dead bird several times in the most cere-
monious fashion, and then went in to the attack
with great ferocity. After he had made a hole in
the body, and torn off several pieces of flesh and
swallowed them, he again swam round and con-
templated the richness of the treat that had fallen
in his way. A few days after this I saw one of
these birds trying to secure a sick or injured Puffin
for his dinner. He hovered like the shadow of
death over poor little " Tammy Norie " for a
moment or two, and then made a rapid downward
swoop towards it. His intended victim, however,
apparently understood his tactics only too well, for
directly he came too close the Puffin promptly dived
and reappeared a considerable distance off. The
Gull circled round and round, and after trying
several times in vain to secure his prey by swoop-
ing down upon it, alighted on the water and
endeavoured to swim stealthily within reach of the
sick bird, but the latter never allowed him to
approach too closely, and at last he gave up the
chase and flew away. The St. Kildans dislike the
Great Black-backs very much on account of their
rapacity amongst the eggs and young of useful birds.
One fine morning I turned out at four o'clock
and walked down to the beach with my field glasses.
The first bird I fell in with was a Dunlin in breed-
ing plumage. He was hard at work feeding, and

60 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

looked a very prim little fellow as lie ran up and
down the narrow spit of golden sand. It was quite
amusing to watch him dash after the backwash of
a breaker and make two or three hasty pecks on
the very edge of the water before the next wave
rolled in and chased him away. Sometimes he
dallied so long over the plenitude of edible morsels
that he was obliged to resort to flight in order to
avoid being overwhelmed by the seething rush of
waters. I saw a Dunlin at this same place on three
separate occasions, and as my brother one day
came across three birds together we concluded the
species might be breeding on the island, and at
once instituted a systematic search for a nest; but
although it has been asserted that the bird breeds
in St. Kilda, we failed to find any evidence of
the fact.

Hirta and the Doon have been separated at
some distant age by the continual wear and tear
of Atlantic storms upon the rocks that undoubtedly
once joined them together, and a westerly wind
now drives the waves through the narrow gap
with great force and uproar. I climbed down into
this pass one afternoon in order to get close to the
awful billows as they rolled in. The sight was
sublime, and I sat fascinated for I know not how
long watching the turmoil of waters leaping and
thundering against the mighty crags. On the
Doon side of this storm-worn breach the cliffs
rise precipitously from the sea. Here and there I
observed a Fulmar Petrel brooding on a narrow
ledge in the utmost peace and security. It was a
wonderfully pretty sight to see the male birds
come to feed their mates. They never did this
in a strictly business-like manner, but flew up and
toyed round their sitting mates for a second or

BLACK GUILLEMOTS. 61

two on their extraordinary wings and then glided
gracefully away for some little distance, to return
and do precisely the same kind of affectionate
wantoning several times over before they delivered
the dainty morsels they had brought.

On the St. Kilda side of the gap the rocks
slope considerably, and towards the top the earth
covering them is honeycombed by Puffin burrows.
The owners of these subterranean nurseries were
present in great numbers, and kept on flying un-
easily past my spray-dripping form close down by
the sea. I noticed that they always new closest
past me when facing the wind, and assumed that
this was done in order to get a steadier and
better view of their strange visitor. Whilst sitting
at this spot I heard a faint tway, twaying, whin-
ing kind of note, something like that of a Robin
Redbreast when her nest has been invaded, but
could not for the life of me make out whence it
proceeded. I examined all the ledges of black
basalt opposite me with my field-glasses, but failed
to discover anything to account for the strange
sounds. This puzzled me considerably, but in a
little while I solved the mystery. On a small
ledge of rock in the mouth of a cave on my left
I observed a little patch of brilliant orange colour
appearing and disappearing simultaneously with the
sound. It was the open mouth of a Black Guille-
mot standing — or, rather, crouching — breast towards
me in such a position that I could not see the
white patch on its wings. Presently this bird took
to the water, and was speedily joined by two
others of its own species. One of the new-comers
and the bird I had been puzzled by evidently had
a difference to settle, and straightway began as
•pretty a fight as I ever witnessed. They seized

62 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

each other with their beaks, pecked, splashed the
water, and flapped round and round in small circles
until one of them got worsted in the encounter and
dived to escape. Although vanquished he seemed
loth to give up the struggle, and returned again
and again to the charge. No sooner, however, had
he got close up to the foe than his courage failed,
and instead of taking his punishment he dived
straight under his adversary and came up a long
way in his rear. After a while he seemed to
acknowledge himself beaten, and took his departure.

Whilst all this was going on the third bird,
which I judged to be a female, kept swimming
quietly round the contestants ; but when the struggle
was over she joined the conqueror, and they re-
mained together in tranquillity for a long while at
the same spot.

During the afternoon I was joined by my
brother, and together we descended a cliff not far
away in order to examine a number of Fulmar
Petrels' nests, which we judged to be accessible
without the aid of a rope. By a very difficult
and dangerous scramble, we managed to get down
to the place where the birds were breeding. We
inspected three or four nests, handling the egg
in each and making a note of the pebbles and
earth upon which it was lying. The natives of
St. Kilda say that the sense of smell in a Fulmar
is so keen that the bird will desert its egg if it
has only been breathed upon by a human being.
Whether there is any truth in this assertion or not
I cannot tell, but curiously enough when my
brother descended to photograph some of these
nests a day or two afterwards he was dismayed
to find every egg gone. As Fulmars' eggs are not
gathered by the natives on the island of St. Kilda

THE WAR OF WATERS. 63

their disappearance could not be accounted for in
this way ; and I think there can be but little doubt
that they were forsaken through our interference,
and afterwards eaten by either the Great Black-
backed Gulls or Hooded Crows.

As I was anxious to procure a good picture of
the war of waters in the gap I have just men-
tioned between St. Kilda and the Doon, it was
arranged that my brother and I should walk over
there one afternoon to take a photograph, and that
a boat should afterwards pick us up and convey us
to the latter island. We found it impossible to
make a picture on account of the showers of fine
spray which were being driven through the defile,
blurring the lens of our camera the moment it
was exposed.

In a little while the boat hove in sight, and
we took off our boots and descended the slippery
rock to embark. Seeing a chance of some fun
with big Finlay McQuien, who turned out to be
one of the rowers, I tied my boots together by
the laces, and having no fear of their sinking on
account of one of them being composed largely of
cork — a necessity caused by an early climbing acci-
dent— I purposely threw them short of where he
stood in the bows of the boat ready to make a
catch, and they fell with a splash into the sea.
Poor McQuien ! I shall never forget his look of
alarm at what he supposed to be a very awkward
accident, nor his astonishment when he saw the
cork boot float and support its companion in the
water. When he recovered them he squeezed the
former, rolled up the whites of his eyes, and
exclaimed, u Vary khood, vary khood!"

After a deal of difficulty we managed to jump
into the boat, which was jigging about like a cork

64 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

in a whirlpool on account of a heavy ground swell
and the rush of a current which came from a cave
close by. In a few minutes we landed on the
Doon, and hauled our craft high and dry upon
a rock, which was almost as steep as the roof of
a house.

We climbed to the top of the island, and then
along its narrow serrated ridge until we came to a
place where Finlay McQuien and his companion
could show us an example of their skill with the
fowling rod. My brother descended to the very
brink of an awful precipice, and getting his camera
into such a position as to command a view of a
number of Fulmar Petrels sitting on a narrow ledge
of rock, waited for the fowlers to descend. Finlay
Gillies tied a rope round the body of McQuien, who
stealthily crept down, rod in hand, until he came
within reach of the unsuspecting birds, when he
quietly pushed the instrument forward till the open
noose at the end was just in front of the head of
the one he had selected for his victim. By a
dexterous twist of the wrist the fatal circle of
horse-hair and Gannet quills fell round the neck
of the Fulmar, which instantly spread out its wings
and sprang forward, only to tighten the noose,
and by its fluttering frighten all its companions
away. As the bird was being brought up the
picture on the opposite page was taken. The two
small figures on the top of the high pinnacle of
rock in the illustration represent our friend Mr.
John Young and myself, who were watching the
sport from this Dantesque coign of vantage.

In retracing our steps along the summit of the
island we discovered a Forked-Tailed Petrel's burrow
containing several nests. We examined two of these,
and found that whilst one contained quite a liberal

FIN LAY McQUIEN CATCHING FULMARS

66 WITS NATURE AND A CAMERA.

lining of dead grass, the other had no materials
whatever in it; the egg being simply deposited on
the bare peat earth.

After photographing a Manx Shearwater's nest-
ing hole we descended to our boat. Whilst the
men got it into the sea my brother thought he
could negotiate the steep and slippery rock
running down to the water's edge alone, but he
had not gone far before he fell as suddenly as if
he had been walking on an inclined plain of ice,
and shot down towards the ocean at a terrific pace
with his camera, which he had held under his arm,
after him. The latter struck against a small pro-
jection of rock and stopped, but its owner continued
his wild career until he came to a kind of natural
basin full of water, just left by the receding tide.
Here he stopped all in a heap with considerable
abruptness and a big splash. I could not help
laughing when I saw him strike out, under the
impression that he had actually landed in Village
Bay. He scrambled cautiously back to his camera
on his hands and knees, and after carefully examin-
ing the apparatus for hurts, he told me that the
dizzying effect of the fall, and his quick transition
seawards, made him confident on feeling the cold
water that he had arrived in the ocean, and he
began to strike out in order that he might get
away from the rocks and the surf and swim towards
the place where the boat was being launched.

Satisfied with our adventure we remained where
we were until McQuien came along to help us
down to the place of embarkation.

As the boat was too small to carry seven of
us with safety we shipped my brother and Mr.
Mackenzie over to St. Kilda, and afterwards the
minister, Mr. Young, and I went a-fishing for

PLATING A COALFISH. 67

Pollack, or whatsoever else would give us an op-
portunity of hooking it.

No sooner had we got our troll-lines out, with
their little red indiarubber sand-eels spinning be-
witchingly at the ends as the men rowed steadily
alongside the rocks, than I felt a mighty tug at
mine. " A monster, by George ! " thought I, and
fearful of losing him tightened my hold upon the
line. This was a fatal mistake, for it instantly
parted, and my fish went off to consider, in the
quiet of some dark cave many fathoms below, the
baseness of the imitation he had secured.

Fortunately, the minister had a spare line on
board, which he kindly lent me. It was baited with
a real sand-eel, which had been captured in a
despisable trickle of water running from the side
of Conagher into the bay, had its skin taken off to
make it look conspicuous, and then been lashed with
white cotton thread to an artfully-concealed hook.

I had not had this line out more than half
a minute before I felt another exhilarating jerk.
The fish I had hooked plunged and kicked like
a newly-haltered colt. I played him carefully for a
while, and when I judged he had run the measure
of his strength gently hauled him in. Directly he
came alongside the boat, however, he bethought
himself of his almost lost liberty, and with an angry
slap of his tail rolled over and disappeared beneath
the craft. I slacked the line instantly lest he should
saw it in two across the keel, and he promptly
dived. After another short tussle I worked him
back to the side of the boat, where he lay on the
surface of the water with his mouth wide open.
Holding the line in my right hand I plunged my
left into his gills and hauled him on board. He was
a Coalfish weighing about twelve and a half pounds.

68 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

Mr. Fiddes caught a good- sized Pollack and one
Coalfish before a monster of some sort broke his line,
and left us with the single one which I was using.

I now requested Mr. Young to take a hand at
my line ; but he would not touch it, declaring that,
old sportsman though he was, the fun of watching
my boyish pleasure and excitement was more to his
liking than even the fishing itself. I caught several
splendid fish in quick succession ; and Finlay
McQuien grew greatly alarmed at the way I was
spoiling my clothes by dragging the voracious
creatures over the gunwale of the boat. Once I
had no sooner disengaged a fish and dropped the
bait overboard, than another rose and snatched it
before the leaden weight on the line had actually
touched the water. Directly he discovered that all
things are not quite what they seem he dived with
a tremendous rush. The suddenness of the jerk
made the line spin through my hand so fast that
my fingers were hot with the friction.

By the time we reached the end of the Doon,
the bottom of the boat was covered from stem to
stern with dead fish of all sizes. My bootless feet
and legs were wet and cold to the knees, but I
was entirely oblivious of any feeling of discomfort
whilst the sport lasted.

After fishing for a little over an hour, we rowed
homewards across the bay. I kept the minister's
catch separate; and when I counted my own upon
the beach, I had seventeen Coalfish of an aggre-
gate weight of something between one hundred and
eighty and two hundred pounds.

News was sent up to the village that there was
plenty of fish on the beach for everybody, and a
number of boys quickly trooped down to the land-
ing place for a share. Before any part of my catch

~1

70 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

was taken away, however, I sent for my brother,
and although it was very late in the evening he
managed to photograph me and my trophies.

When Sandy Campbell saw the boys dragging
the fish past our cottage, he told me that he re-
collected the time when the St. Kildans would not
eat it, as they said it had no substance (oil) in it.
They simply took the liver out of such as they

WRENS' EGGS.

The upper and larger eggs art those of the St. Kilda Wren, the lower ones are those of th*
Mainland Wren.

caught, and either cured the body for exportation
or threw it to their dogs.

Whilst in Hirta I gave one bird particular
attention, on account of the controversy which took
place some years ago as to its claims to be con-
sidered a distinct species ; and as I do not know
any of the disputants except by repute, what I
here put down may be taken as entirely unpre-
judiced either way. I refer to the Wren (Trog-
lodytes parvulus) met with in St. Kilda. It may be
worth while to mention before going any further
that I have been familiar with every note, move-
ment, and attitude of its mainland representative

THE ST. KILDA WREN. 71

all my life, as such experience naturally affects my
value as an observant witness.

I procured an adult male in St. Kilda, and found
that it measured, from the point of its bill to the
tip of its tail, exactly four and a quarter inches,
and a specimen of the same sex in the South of
England which was four inches in length. The
beak, legs, toes and claws of the St. Kilda bird
are a trifle stronger and lighter in colour, and the
plumage generally much paler and more distinctly
marked. This is especially noticeable on the back,
which is barred transversely with greyish and dark
brown where the mainland bird is reddish brown
with indistinct bars of a darker hue.

Its carriage and appearance are somewhat
different, as it rarely, if ever, cocks its tail at
that acute angle so characteristic of the Common
Wren. In fact, it more often carries it as much
depressed as that of a quiescent Meadow Pipit,
even when singing. Its song is of about the same
duration as that of the mainland bird, viz. from
five to six seconds; is louder, less metallic, and
much oftener uttered on the wing. I sometimes
heard it within a few inches of my ear whilst
standing perfectly still in a cleit for purposes of
observation. I never once heard that familiar jar-
ring note of alarm or anger so common in other
parts of the British Isles where Wrens are to be
met with.

I examined five nests, two with eggs in, one
lined with feathers ready to receive them, and two
" cocks' nests." Both the latter I found myself ;
and as I had very good reason to believe that
neither of them had been touched by human hands,
I measured the aperture in each, and found it to
be one and five- eighth inches in horizontal diameter ;

72 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

whereas the hole in similar nests examined in
England is generally not more than one and one-
sixteenth. I did not take any measurements from
the nests with eggs in, as they had been investi-
gated by large rough fingers, which had, of course,
destroyed the scientific value of anything in the
way of horizontal diameter. The nests are larger,

- '
/

''^•ppfpp^^' ' *•-

ST. KILDA WREN.

constructed of rougher materials, and not so neatly
made as those of mainland Wrens.

The eggs, although subject to the usual amount
of variation in point of size, run larger, as will be
seen from the illustration on p. 70, which has been
prepared from a carefully-made photograph taken
life-size with the camera directly over them, for
purposes of comparison. My friend Mackenzie told
me that although he has examined quite fifty
nests during the time he has visited the island in
the capacity of factor, he has never yet seen one

YOUNG WRENS IN 80 A. 73

containing more than six eggs. I have found
nests in Yorkshire on more than one occasion
containing seven and even eight.

For purposes of comparison, we have also made a
photograph of a mainland fledgling Wren of about the
same age, and give the pictures herewith side by side.

Curiously enough the Eider Duck, whose average
clutch is said on very good authority to number

'''•'^^UPPPP-

MAINLAND WREN.

five eggs, and in whose nest I have myself seen as
many as eight at the Fame Islands, never lays
more than four at St. Kilda, according to the
natives, one of whom showed me a clutch with
that number in it.

During the third week in June we did not see
a single young Wren in St. Kilda, where such
eggs as we had shown to us were quite fresh; but
in Soa, which is only separated by a narrow
channel, young birds were flying about the rocks
almost as strongly as their parents. We succeeded in
laying hands upon one, the adventurous particulars

74

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

of whose capture will be related when I come
to deal with our visit to Soa. My brother fixed
up his camera and focussed the corner of an ad-
vantageously-situated crag, and when he had got
his plate in and all ready, I quietly placed the
bird upon it and kept my hands over the little

NEST OF ST. KILDA WREN.

creature until he was composed, then counting one,
two, for my brother's signal, I swiftly withdrew.
The pneumatic tube was instantly pressed, and the
photograph, from which the accompanying picture
has been made, was taken.

Every Wren's nest we found, or had shown to
us, was located inside a cleit; and, as may well be

PHOTOGRAPHING A WREN'S NEST. 75

imagined, a situation over the door-lintel of one of
these dark structures did not lend itself readily to
picture-making. To get over the difficulty caused by
an almost entire absence of light, my brother fixed
a looking-glass at such an angle inside the cleit
that it reflected the rays of light coming through
the little doorway backwards and upwards on to
the nest. I then went outside, and with another
mirror threw the sun's rays upon the looking-glass
inside. By this means my brother was able to
focus the nest and some of its surroundings. No
sooner, however, had this difficulty been got over
than another presented itself. The dark slide con-
taining the sensitised plate could not be got in and
arranged for exposure on account of the position
of the nest and the narrowness of the cleit. This
was extremely awkward, but we surmounted it by
carefully noting the position of each of the legs
of the tripod and then marking the exact position
of the camera with a lead pencil on the stones of
the side wall against which it was actually leaning.
It was then removed, the slide introduced, and
shutter drawn out ready to expose the slide, and
the whole put back into the register formed by the
pencil marks. A long exposure and several inter-
mittent gleams of sunshine produced the picture
here given.

We arranged an excursion to Borrera, and as
soon as a favourable day occurred, started, after
listening without understanding a single word of a
prolonged debate amongst the men and the tire-
some wrangling of their dogs. As we neared the
island the scene became simply magnificent. The
air above and around us was thickly peopled with
thousands upon thousands of Gannets of different
ages, as could easily be seen from the wonderful

76 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

variation in the colour of their plumage. Some of
the birds were flying straight along on the business
of nest-making intent, whilst others wheeled idly
round and round in order to satisfy their curiosity
by making a leisurely survey of us and our boat.
As far as the eye could see small objects, the sea
was covered in every direction by a vast throng of
Puffins, Guillemots, and Razor-bills, many of which
gazed in bewildered astonishment at us until the
bows of the boat got quite close to them, when
they dived with the swiftness and silence of thought
and were gone. In front of us stood Borrera
sternly guarded by its dark bulwark of forbidding
crags, from the topmost edges of which brilliant
green slopes of great steepness ran upwards until
they were lost in the trailing skirts of a luminous
white cloud. To our left was Stack Lee, a gigantic
pillar of rock rising about three hundred feet out
of the ocean. Its sloping upper parts and every
available ledge and corner were positively white
with Solan Geese sitting on their nests. Such a
snow-like mass do these birds present, that we were
told on a fine day the Stack may be distinctly seen
from Long Island — a distance of forty miles.

When we neared our destination the swell was
breaking so badly upon the rocks that we had
considerable doubts as to whether we should be
able to land. A dog we had in the boat evidently
thinking that he, at any rate, was equal to the
task leapt overboard and tried. He easily reached
the rocks, but every time he attempted to land the
heavy backwash tore him away, and he would
inevitably have been drowned had not one of the
men seized and dragged him into the boat again.

After a great deal of manoeuvring, accompanied
by much excitement on the part of the crew, a

LANDING ON BORRERA. 77

young man had a rope tied round his waist, and
went forward to wait for a favourable opportunity
to leap ashore. The rope is always used as a safe-
guard in case of accident. Two men succeeded in
effecting a landing, but the place was considered
so dangerous that the rest of us were taken to
another part of the island, where it was hoped the
swell would be less boisterous. The new place
selected was probably a little more sheltered from
the waves, but in spite of this it was very dangerous
on account of the steep, sloping rock which was
covered with the most slippery sea-weed I ever trod
upon. The men we had already landed worked
their way along what appeared to be untreadable
ledges and round the corners of impassable crags,
and flung their rope-ends to us. Whilst they held
the boat from drifting away, and two of those on
board prevented her from being stove in upon the
rocks, Finlay McQuien tied a rope round his body
and sprang ashore. My brother and I now doffed
our boots and donned each a pair of coarse woollen
socks, which we had bought on purpose for rock-
climbing, and prepared to leap. He performed
the feat first, and then had his camera and plates
sent up to him by a method which he devised him-
self, and is, I think, worth while mentioning for the
benefit of other photographers on account of its
absolute simplicity and the security it affords frail
and costly apparatus. The camera is tied to the
middle of a long rope, one end of which is thrown
to a man ashore and hauled in by him, whilst the
part behind the apparatus is being paid out in such
a way as to keep the whole taut, and thus prevent
the camera from swinging or touching the rocks.

When it came to my turn to face the rocks
the men looked afraid to take me up, and I must

78

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

confess frankly that I felt afraid to go. My brother
strongly advised me to stay where I was, but this
was impossible. I have many times been accused
of foolhardiness, but never once of cowardice; and
I could not bear to think that I lacked the necessary
courage, so promptly leapt ashore to prove to my
own satisfaction that I didn't.

We trudged up the steep cliff, clambering from
ledge to ledge and from boulder
to boulder, until we came to
where the turf clothes the island.
Here the Puffins breed in im-
mense numbers, and the clouds
of birds that swept past us
made a sound like a whirlwind
whipping a great bed of dead
rushes. As the Forked- Tailed
Petrels also nest regularly at
the same spot, we began to
grope about in the burrows for
their eggs. I had not investi-
gated more than two or three
holes before I felt a peculiar
stinging pain, and precipitately
withdrew my hand, streaming
with blood. I had invaded the nest of a Tammy
Norrie by mistake, and the owner being at home
naturally objected, and administered with great
promptitude what she no doubt regarded as a well-
deserved punishment for the intrusion. I used to
be a little sceptical about the stories of Puffins
evicting rabbits from their burrows, but must con-
fess that the back of my unbelief was broken that
day on Borrera.

The men found several Forked -Tailed Petrels in
their nesting-burrows, and when they were taken

PUFFIN NOOSE.

80 WITS. NATURE AND A CAMERA.

out the gentle little things squirted quantities of
oil, varying in colour from amber to orange, from
their beaks. It appeared to be ejected through fear,
and smelt very strongly when it happened to alight
on any part of one's clothing.

Finlay McQuien now began to show us an
example of his skill with the fowling- rod amongst
the Puffins, which need far more care and deftness
to capture than the Fulmar Petrels. The rod used,
however, is just the same : a light deal pole about
thirteen feet in length, with a hazel twig between
two and three feet in length lashed on to the end.
To this is securely fastened a running noose of
horse-hair and Gannet quills, so cunningly plaited
together as to resemble the tapering lash of a
carriage whip. The effect of the interwoven quills
is that whilst preserving a sufficient amount of
flexibility they so stiffen the noose as to make it
stand up in the form of an almost perfect circle.
The piece of hazel is slightly curved so as to slide
easily along the ground, and at the same time
elevate the noose sufficiently to enable the fowler
to slip it over the head of a bird by a dexterous
turn of the wrist. The St. Kildans, one and all,
seemed to exercise a kind of uncanny fascination
over the Puffins, which they caught one after
another with the utmost ease. The whole pro-
cedure appeared to be simplicity itself, and as
I am considered a deft hand with a trout-rod I
essayed the task. Creeping up cautiously on my
hands and knees I slipped the rod stealthily along
in front of me, but to no purpose; the birds
would not tolerate my approach and flew away.
I tried again and again, but the noose either
waggled about until it scared the foolish-looking
little creatures away, or I miscalculated my distance

PRIMITIVE DWELLINGS. 81

when endeavouring to entangle a victim. Several
times an angry Tammy Norie seized the noose in
his beak and dragged at it until he so lessened the
size of the circle as to make me despair of ever
getting it over his head. Each failure amused the
natives immensely, and they laughed heartily at
my expense. However, this only increased my
determination, and after a deal of perseverance I
succeeded in capturing a bird, to the great delight
of my spectators.

So successful are the St. Kildans at this kind
of sport that Angus Gillies once bagged to his
own rod no less than six hundred and twenty
Puffins in a single day.

In the course of our wanderings on the island
we came upon the half-underground dwellings in
which the men and women live when they visit
the place to pull the wool off their sheep or snare
and pluck birds. They are odd kind of houses —
very dark, uncommonly damp, and weird to a degree
— and seem as if they had owed their existence to
the first glimmerings of human intelligence. In
shape and general appearance they are much like
a cleit half -buried in the steep hill-side.

There is a small doorway, through which those
using the house are obliged to creep on hands and
knees ; the fire-pit is half-in and half-out of the
house, and the place is illuminated by a stone lamp.
I examined this remarkable relic of antiquity with
considerable interest, and it appeared to me to
have been carefully chosen for its peculiar acci-
dental shape rather than made. It had a hollow in
the middle for the reception of oil, and a narrow
crevice or gutter running upwards from it to one
end for the accommodation of the wick. It was
blackened with smoke, and the damp stood upon it
G

82 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

in great glistening beads. The St. Kildan visitors
sleep on a raised platform covered with straw.

The position of the fire-pit, which is considerably
below the level of the floor of the house, is very
ingeniously contrived so as to admit of a certain
amount of light and heat and yet not have the
burning fuel unduly interfered with by the wind.
The fire is practically outside the house, but the
earth is so piled up around that it rises above the
aperture in the wall and forms a kind of chimney,
thus preventing the smoke in ordinary weather
from being blown inside the house.

There is a somewhat similar structure in St.
Kilda known as " The Strong Man's House," on
account of the fact that it was built in a single
day by the unaided efforts of one man, whose
great physical strength is testified to by the huge
stones he used in its construction, and whose
handiwork is a treasured wonder of all the St.
Kildans.

Whilst exploring the interior of one of these
temporary dwellings a young man pulled an old
worm-eaten wooden ladle from a hole in the wall,
and explained that it was used for dividing porridge
amongst those who came to work on the island for
a while. The condition of the utensil did not set
me longing madly after Borrera porridge.

As we sat chatting in semi-darkness it suddenly
occurred to Finlay McQuien to ask me, through
a younger man who could speak English, to tell
them something about London. As they are all
so good in St. Kilda I knew it was of no use
entering the great metropolis in a competition
of that kind, so went at once to the opposite
extreme and told the most dreadful stories I
could remember or invent of pickpockets and

84 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

other bad characters, and showed McQuien what
they would probably do to him if he ever happened
to wander so far south. This fetched him, with a
vengeance. He seized a lump of timber lying close
by, put himself in a slaying attitude, rolled his
eyes to heaven, and showed his fine set of pearly-
white teeth in imitative rage. I was greatly
pleased with the effect I produced, but fear I have
sown the seeds of a bitter harvest for any member
of the Fagin brotherhood who may happen to cross
the path of the champion cragsman of St. Kilda.

In descending from the semi-underground dwell-
ings I noticed three or four strips of ground, about
two feet wide and twelve feet long, with the sod
cut out and turned wrong- side up. The cuttings
ran straight up and down the steep hill- side,
and upon inquiry I discovered that they had
been made by the members of a party which had
recently been staying upon the island as a signal
to their friends on St. Kilda that the work which
had occasioned their visit had been done, and they
were ready to be taken off. If anybody should
fall ill whilst sojourning on Borrera for more
than a day this signal, or a fire lighted on the
open hill-side, is used to warn the St. Kildans at
home that something is wrong and that the boat
is wanted. During the time friends are absent
from home on a prolonged wool-gathering, or bird-
catching, expedition, daily watch is kept from the
top of the hills behind St. Kilda village for any
signals which they may make for assistance.

By-and-by we were joined by the other members
of our party, each of whom seemed to come from
a different quarter of the island, laden with Fulmars
and Puffins.

The ground officer's eldest son, Mr. A. Ferguson,

FERGUSON FOWLING ON BORRERA,

86 WITS NATURE AND A CAMERA.

who a year or two back forsook the lone crags
of St. Kilda for the more lucrative and less ad-
venturous life of a Glasgow commercial house,
happened to be at home on a holiday at the time
of our visit, and we persuaded him to accompany
us to Borrera, as he was not only an intelligent
and genial companion, but also very useful in
interpreting for us in the absence of our friend
the factor, who could not go out that day. He
was desirous of seeing whether his hand had lost
its cunning with the fowling- rod, and one of the
men accordingly fastened a rope round him and
paid it out from a sure footing as he disappeared
over the brink of a fearful precipice. I crawled
on my hands and knees to the edge of the cliff,
and was astonished to see him pass the noose over
the head of a Fulmar and take her off her nest
with so much skill and deftness that other birds
sitting close around did not appear to be at all
disturbed by the fate of their neighbour. Their
conduct in this respect was totally unlike that of
the birds we had watched under similar circum-
stances on the Doon.

By the aid of a rope my brother got into a very
hazardous and awkward situation, from which he
managed to take a photograph of the ex-fowler in
the holiday war-paint of Buchanan Street.

As we descended to the place of re-embarkation,
I could not make out why the two men who were
along with me got into such a state of excitement,
but presently learnt that their anxiety was lest I
should spoil my trousers by my peculiar method of
progression. They were highly amused when I ex-
plained to them, through a lad who overtook us, that
my concern for the safety of my neck was so great
that I had absolutely none left for my garments.

A DANGEROUS LEAP. 87

Just as I was congratulating myself upon having
got down to the water's edge again in safety, and
doffing the climbing-rope I had had attached to my
shoulders for safety, it was announced that we could
not possibly re- ship at the place where we had
landed, on account of the tremendous ground-swell.
My heart sank within me when I looked up at
the awful detour we should be obliged to make in
order to get to a place where the conditions for
embarkation would be more favourable. The
thing looked impossible. After travelling in a
slanting, upward direction for some time, we came
to a narrow ledge, along which we cautiously crept,
with the sea boiling and thundering a couple of
hundred feet sheer beneath us. I had had a rope
attached to me all the time, but my brother refused
to have any safeguard of this kind, deeming, himself
capable of going wherever the St. Kildans went
under similar conditions; but when we came to a
great yawning chasm in the rock which had to be
leapt, they appeared to recognise their own re-
sponsibility in the matter, and quietly lassoed him
from behind. In order to make assurance doubly
sure in my case they tied two ropes round me, and,
when I jumped, one was held by a man who had
already crossed the chasm, and the other by one
who had not yet done so. The side upon which 1
landed was lower than that from which I leapt,
and the sting of alighting upon hard rock without
boots on one's feet is something to be remembered
for many a day.

We had not gone far along this awful path before
I discovered a dead sheep wedged betwixt two crags.
It had no doubt been blown from the heights that
towered against the blue sky far overhead. I was
anxious to examine it from a natural history point

88 WITH NATURE AND A GAME HA.

of view, and induced my guide to slack the rope
between us in order that I might do so. As I
expected, the Ravens or Hooded Crows had pecked
out both the unfortunate creature's eyes.

A little farther along I heard a curious noise
proceeding from an immense horizontal fissure run-
ning parallel with the ledge along which we were
travelling. The thing puzzled me, and I could not
resist the temptation to crawl in and investigate
the cause. I found the crevice tenanted by a colony
of Shags, whose young ones were crying lustily for
more fresh fish.

After some difficulty and danger, we managed
to half-leap and half-tumble into the frail old boat,
which a month or two later — according to a letter
I had from Finlay McQuien — went to splinters on
the rocks during a gale.

Martin's first experience of the birds at St.
Kilda was gained near Borrera, and his own
account of what he saw is worth quoting. He
says: — "We put in under the hollow of an extra-
ordinary high rock (Stack in Armin) to the north
of this isle (Borrera), which was all covered with
a prodigious number of Solan Geese hatching on
their eggs; the heavens were darkened by their
flying over our heads ; their excrements were in
such quantity that they gave a tincture to the sea,
and at the same time sullied our boat and clothes.
Two of them confirmed the truth of what has been
frequently reported of their stealing from one another
grass wherewith to make their nests by affording
us the following very agreeable diversion, and it
was thus : One of them, finding his neighbour's
nest without the fowl, lays hold on the oppor-
tunity and steals from it as much grass as he could
conveniently carry off, taking his flight towards

90 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

the ocean ; from thence he presently returns as if
he had made a foreign purchase, but it does not
pass for such. For the owner had discovered the
fact before the thief had got out of sight, and
too nimble for his cunning, waits his return all
armed with fury and engages him desperately ;
this bloody battle was fought above our heads, and
proved fatal to the thief, who fell dead so near our
boat that our men took him up and presently
dressed and eat him, which they reckoned as an
omen of good success in the voyage.'7

Although we saw plenty of Solan Geese build-
ing their nests, we were not treated to anything
in the way of examples of petty larceny and
bloody justice which seem to have supplied our
rather sanguinary -minded old friend Martin with
what he frankly calls a " very agreeable diversion."

Martin says that he made particular inquiry
as to how many Solan Geese were killed and eaten
in St. Kilda in a year, and found that in a bad
season no less than twenty-two thousand five
hundred had been caught and consumed. Both the
people and the birds appear to have been more
numerous then than nowr.

One authority has estimated the number of
Gannets breeding on the St. Kilda group of islands
at two hundred thousand, and computed their summer
consumption of fish at two hundred and fourteen
millions, adding that the sight of the birds resting
on Stack Lee is " one of the wonders of the world."

The Solan Geese return to their breeding quarters
on Borrera and the adjoining rock stacks in March,
about the middle of which month the St. Kildans
go forth in their boats to raid the sleeping birds
under the cover of darkness. According to Sands,
the foray is managed in the following way:— " Two

QANNET AND YOUNQ.

92 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

men fastened at either end of a rope ascend the
rocks, and on all-fours crawl along the ledge where
the geese are resting. The latter have always a
sentinel posted, who, if he thinks all is well, cries,
' Gorrok ! Gorrok ! J on hearing which the fowlers
advance ; but if the sentinel cries ' Beero ! ' the men
remain motionless with their bonnets drawn over
their brows, and their faces on the rock. If the
sentinel fancies it was a false alarm, and again
cries i Gorrok ! ' the first fowler progresses until he
is near enough to grasp the sentinel and twist his
powerful neck. The sentinel gone, the whole flock
falls into a state of panic and bewilderment, and
crowd upon the man on all sides. He has nothing
to do but despatch them. But it sometimes happens
that the whole troop take flight with a ' Beero !
harro ! boo ! ' when the men have to crawl back
without any game for that night."

On returning from their winter quarters the birds
are allowed to get thoroughly settled down on
their usual roosting rocks, when a dark calm night
is chosen for raiding them.

If the sentinel gives the alarm, and the birds
fly off, they sometimes assail their would-be captors
in departing, and the men have to look out for
the safety of their eyes. Caps and mufflers are
occasionally carried off by the angry Gannets.

During our stay Willie Macdonald caught an
old male bird whilst he sat asleep on Borrera in
broad daylight. The young Gannets are killed in
September.

Guillemots are also caught at night, but in a
totally different manner. About three weeks after
the birds have returned to their breeding quarters
on the rocks they are suddenly driven away from
a number of favourite ledges late one evening, and

THE BIRDS ON STAGK LEE. 93

long before dawn the following morning a man is
lowered to each. Here he sits, motionless as a
statue, and at the first suggestion of daybreak the
birds stream up from the sea and alight upon him,
thinking he is a rock, and are promptly secured
and killed. As many as a hundred may be killed
in this way in an hour, I was told, by one man
alone. Directly it becomes light enough to dis-
tinguish the fowler from a rock, the birds steer
clear of the ledge on which he sits and he is
hauled up.

Our old friend Martin says that he was told by
the steward " that a red-coat had been found in one
Solan Goose's nest, and a brass sun-dial, an arrow,
and some Molucca beans in another."

One writer mentions that while on a voyage to
St. Kilda, the boat in which he was travelling was
sailing at a great pace before the wind, when a
Gannet, having marked a fish just in front, stooped
and drove its powerful beak through the bottom of
the vessel, breaking its neck in the collision.

When we finally left St. Kilda on board the
Hebridean, we were told that the captain intended
to steam round by Stack Lee in order to give his
passengers a sight of the birds upon it. As the boat
came abreast of the towering rock, some members
of the crew loaded and ran out a small brass
cannon. The tip of a red-hot poker applied to the
touch-hole of the gun produced a deafening ex-
plosion, which seemed to be instantly flung back
at us by Stack Lee, and then thundered and rever-
berated from crag to crag along the rocky sides
of Borrera, sending a great white cloud of startled
Gannets into the air above us. Yet in spite of this
vast multitude wheeling round and round, and rising
slowly higher and higher, the birds on Stack Lee

Ill

ir /•/•// A i /•//,•/.' i,\/> i r M// .-/,- i

li nl MiilVorod no n|)|i:irrn(. diminution in numbers.
Wlion \\c li:nl Mloinnod round to (ho opposite side
<>!' I'.. MI. i i nnd M. rnnMidrnihlo disinncc II\VM\ IVtMn
i(, I witllOHNtvl on<^ of ( hr most curious si^lils it

od lorhino Jo hcliold.

im- fell hclwccn (\vo immcnsn

IIIIM over IMMMI mv
A ^loilin "I
M of rock

n.

(ho

lilvo n Hluil'l. of morning sunli^lil, |MMM>h:ihii" nn
oinpiy room ih rough it notch-hole in a closed slmiln.
The (lininotH n»lurninfv <o (heir nesls, could he
plainly neen wluH^Hug imd dtincin^ in (his my o!'

, llK«' Jltoms of while dus(.

OIlAI'TKIt III.

TIM-', IMKDS AND I<'OWI,KI»(M OK ST. KILDA

WHILST Hitting on the rocks round Village)
Hay watching birds through my field glasnoH,
I several times observed (ho curious behaviour of
the wind on the water during squally woatlmr. It
would descend from MM- hill-tops round about, and
ii il in- «.IM particular spot spread out in an almost
perl'ecl circle, producing an olVoct very similar to
Mint of a stone cust into the middle •>! n placid pool.
Of tlm dangers ol' sqmdly woatlmr at St. Kilda
we Imd heard a groat deal, but certainly n«-\< i
dre.-nned ihat w<^ should HOOK have sucJi a vory
<lisa<?'reenble ex.mmle ol' its treachei'y as to inuko

r~\ j

us doubt seriously whether wo should over live to
tell the tale of our experiences.

It cnme nhout in tin,, way. Wo had boon nimble
to do any photographic* work one rather
showery day, and as tho woatlmr cleared
apparently became quite nettled towardn
yomitf I'VrtfUHon invited my brother and mo to go
(wiling with him in Village Hay.

Wo commenced operations by tlm gap dividing
St. Kilda from tlm Doon, mid rowed quietly along,
hugging tlm shore until wo came to tho end of tho
latter island. As wo put about to pull buck I
noticed a black, ominous-looking cloud looming up
behind (Jonaglmr, and awked tho boatmen, who

96 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

were all of the younger generation and could speak
English very well, what it meant. " Just a shower,"
they answered. By the time we had rowed half-
way back along the Doon it had become so dark
that we could hardly see across the bay. This
seemed to increase the voracity of the fish, and we
hooked one monster after another as fast as we
could haul them up. Just as I was in the act of
landing one the boat was struck by a blinding
deluge of rain. The sea rose directly, and the
wind swept the crests of the waves off and twirled
them into stinging showers of white spray. Our
crew, consisting of four strong young fellows, pulled
away at the oars vigorously, but made no progress
so far as I could note by such jutting crags as were
visible through the mirk of the storm. By-and-by
they made the boat creep along, and in a while
we came to a cave in which the St. Kildans hoped
to find shelter from the wind and waves. Instead,
however, of proving a haven of safety, it turned
out to be a veritable death-trap. The huge waves
lifted our wee craft and flung it forward with such
force that it looked perilously like being jammed
into the crevice in which the little cave ended.

Our boatmen had hitherto been speaking in
English, but the exciting character of the situation
soon sent them back upon their Gaelic, in which
tongue they yelled at each other furiously. One
of them lost his head so far that, instead of keeping
his oar against the side of the cave in order to push
fche boat off, drew it in and held it straight up,
mast fashion, and in we went on the next roller.
I made sure that her bows would jam under an
overhanging crag and that the succeeding wave
would fill her, a disaster which would undoubtedly
have befallen us had not my brother jumped up

H

98 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

and held her out by placing both hands against the
rock. He told me afterwards that the effort was
so great that it appeared to strain every muscle in
his body. Some idea of the danger of our situation
may be gathered when I state that more than once,
as a wave broke against the overhanging side of the
cave on our starboard, it splashed into the boat,
and during the back suck of the swell we trailed
and bumped on the sloping rock on our port.

The whole scene was one of indescribable grandeur
from an elemental point of view. Outside, the sea
and the descending torrents of rain were mixing
in a wild tumult of spray and foam. The waves
were leaping against the black basaltic crags, and
making fearsome thunder in the great caves that
tunnel the Doon in places right through from Village
Bay to the Atlantic.

Perhaps the strangest thing of all in this scene
of gloom and uproar was that afforded by twenty
or thirty gentle little Kittiwakes, sitting on their
nests in the utmost peace and security only a few
feet over our imperilled heads.

In from twenty minutes to half an hour the
storm blew itself out, and I think we all breathed
a sigh of relief when we regained the open water
in safety. As a matter of fact, to seek refuge in
such a place was the maddest thing we could have
done.

Without any desire to propound a psychological
problem, or in any way boast of my nerve, I will
here mention a fact which I must confess I cannot
quite understand. While sitting in the boat during
the episode I have just recorded I did not realise
my danger half so acutely as I did when thinking
the matter over quietly in my hammock the same
night. I recollect a similar thing occurring before

THE DOGS OF ST. KILDA. 99

to me, when a lunatic with whom I happened to
be travelling in a midnight express from London
to the North, suddenly whipped out a revolver and,
clapping the cold muzzle to my temples, threatened,
without the slightest provocation, to blow my brains
out. In both cases J am persuaded that my mind
was too busy with the facts to allow the prime
agent of fear — the imagination — to operate.

We tried the fish again, but somehow or other
our indiarubber sand-eels had lost their charm, and
now we toiled for nought. Our catch before the
storm, however, was by no means a small one ; as
upon landing we counted twenty splendid Coalfish,
averaging about ten pounds apiece, as they were
flung from the boat on to the rocks.

I secured one for myself, as I wanted its entrails
to use as a lure for Ravens and Hooded- Crows. I
put the fish carefully away inside the cleit which
stood in front of our cottage, and walled up the
entrance in order to prevent the ever-prowling, fish-
loving dogs from getting at it. I believe that the
dogs of St. Kilda know from the sound of the
breakers when the tide is ebbing, for two or three
of them were always to be seen slinking backwards
and forwards along the narrow strip of sand visible
at the head of Village Bay during low water. I
do not remember being down at this spot once
without seeing them or their footprints.

The next day being Sunday, and the longest in
the year of Grace eighteen hundred and ninety-six,
I waited until it had passed and my friends had
all tucked themselves away in their hammocks, when
I put on my great-coat, and seizing a couple of
military blankets and a double-barrelled gun, quietly
stole out of the house with the intention of passing
the rest of the night in the cleit in front of it, for

100 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

purposes of observation, and if possible the securing
of some predatory birds of which the natives were
desirous I should rid them.

I dragged the fish forth, and extracting its
digestive organs placed them on the top of another
cleit, within gunshot of the one in which I was
about to locate myself. This done, I retired and
walled up the doorway to within an inch or two
of the top; and carefully spreading a few hand-
fuls of old hay on the stones to prevent the gun-
barrels from making a noise or getting scratched,
loaded, rolled myself up in my wraps, and began
an enthusiastically expectant wait. It was never
really too dark to read bold print, but the birds did
not begin to stir until about three o'clock, when a
Wheatear saluted the coming day with his familiar
note. The Kittiwakes down in the bay next began
to stretch themselves and say good morning to each
other. When day had fairly dawned I heard the
hoarse croak of a Eaven, and raising myself on
one knee cocked my gun and waited in that glorious
state of excitement peculiar to men who have tarried
long and patiently for a first shot at some cunning
bird or beast, against whose highly- developed in-
stincts of self-preservation they have pitted their
wits and skill. But the music of that particular
Raven became fainter and fainter as he swung
round the shoulder of Conagher, and my teeth
chattered louder and louder as I knelt and shivered
in the icy-cold wind that swept through the open
walls of the structure within which I had concealed
myself.

Creeping cautiously to the opposite end of the
cleit I saw through a hole, which commanded a
good view of the village, a Great Black-backed
Gull standing sedately on a house-top, whilst a

THE EFFECT OF A SHOT. 101

number of Herring- Gulls were? searching th£ refuse
heap in front of it for some garbage .urjon^ which
they might make a breakigwsjf/-. ;,.:•• l.JJS •*•• •/•'•.

Presently I saw a pair of Ravens come round
the breast of steep Mullach Oshival. They were
flying at a very leisurely pace, and appeared to be
coming straight towards me. I waited with bated
breath, thinking they would discover the feast I
had provided for them; but alas! they only croaked
solemnly to each other, and passed on to the other
end of the village.

Half an hour later I heard a Grey Crow speak
out close at hand. A fleeting shadow passed the
chinks in the wall, and he plumped down with con-
siderable clatter on the roof of the cleit immediately
over my head. I kept perfectly still, and in a few
seconds he made out the position of the carrion
and winged his way straight to it. Just as he
alighted my eye ran along the gun-barrel, there
was a reverberating bang, and one Hooded-Crow
less to trouble the natives of Hirta by stealing the
eggs and young of their precious birds.

The report of my fowling-piece set every dog
in the village barking madly, and sent a crowd of
Lesser Black-backs and Herring- Gulls away from
their morning meal at the midden heaps to protest
loudly against me for the fright I had given them,
as they circled higher and higher in the air over
my head.

After I had picked up my trophy and prepared
him for the skinning-knife, I re-entered my place
of hiding; but to small purpose, as the old maid's
cats living next door to us scented my offal, and
by their assiduous attentions made it impossible for
me to get another shot.

The greatest sight of all, from an ornithological

102 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

point of View,' at "St.' Kilda is the prodigious flock
of Puffins' on Soa. ' We determined to go thither
the first ' time at fa^puraKle spell of weather gave
us an opportunity. The morning of June 22nd was
deemed suitable by all the weather-wise old men ; and
after a wearisomely protracted debate upon various
matters affecting the Commonwealth, we started.

When we reached that part of the coast lying
behind the village, we saw a lot of Shags and other
birds upon a promontory of rock that looked
approachable with the boat. It was decided to land,
and after a deal of manoeuvring bows on as usual,
we succeeded in getting ashore by the aid of ropes.
Once or twice, as I sat in the vessel's prow with
a leg dangling over each side ready to leap ashore,
I missed my chance, and her keel came bump,
bump down the steep rock as she was sucked back
upon the receding waters of a wave.

We clambered about amongst a number of huge
detached boulders in search of something to photo-
graph, but found nothing of any value until my
brother, who had ascended by a tortuous climb from
ledge to ledge away to the left of us, discovered a
Shag's nest, containing three down-clad young ones,
in an open nook some thirty or forty feet imme-
diately above us. In order to examine the birds
and assist in the taking of their portraits I began
to climb straight up amongst the great loose crags
which at one place almost defied my best efforts on
account of their wall-like steepness. However, I
selected a fairly wide crevice, formed by two
immense rocks having fallen into somewhat similar
positions, and placing a hand and foot on either side,
literally worked my way upwards until I came to
a large stone which appeared to be firmly wedged
in between the two forming the crevice. I managed

YOUNG SHAGS.

104 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

to negotiate it successfully, and presently joined
my brother and the young Shags, which were
trembling and shaking in a most distressing state
of fear. After a great deal of trouble, and the
enduring of a vastly unpleasant smell arising from
the filthy condition of the nest and rocks round
about, which were plastered with excreta, we suc-
ceeded in making what we hoped would turn out
to be a fairly decent picture. I do not know
whether it has ever been noticed or recorded before,
but according to my experience the nests of Shags
are far less frequently surrounded by fish in all
stages of decay than are those of Cormorants.

As soon as we had done with the long-necked,
shivering creatures, each of us prepared to de-
scend by his own chosen path. My brother got
down first, and just as he was travelling along a
ledge directly beneath the lump of rock I have just
mentioned as being jammed betwixt the two upright
crags, we had the narrowest escape from a terrible
accident I have ever witnessed. No sooner had I
placed my right foot on the stone, which I had
every reason to believe was as firmly locked in its
position as the keystone of an arch, than it twirled
over and slipped out, and I suffered the extreme
horror of seeing it descend straight upon my
brother. By a stroke of wonderful good luck he
saw it start, and making a dexterous bound just
managed to clear its path by a hairsbreadth. It
struck the ledge of rock with a dull crash, pul-
verised a portion of itself into a sulphureous smell-
ing little cloud of powder, and thundering onwards
down the steep slope of the cliff, finally bounded
into the sea with a churning splash. I should
undoubtedly have followed it had I not had my
hands hard pressed against the boulder on either

YOUNG RAZORBILL. 105

side. The danger I had unconsciously undergone
in ascending the crevice was not pleasant to reflect
upon, and the incident made me feel distinctly
uncomfortable for a while.

We saw a great number of Razorbills' eggs
lying about under boulders and ledges, and here
and there came across a newly-hatched young one,

YOUNG RAZORBILL.

which was making its worldly wants known by
vigorous chirping. The one figuring in our illus-
tration was photographed at this place; and its
comical, over- sized looking feet will, no doubt,
suggest to anyone unacquainted with the peculiar
development of the lower extremities of the young
of this species a freak of the camera, not uncommon,
I believe, when dealing with feet.

By working his way carefully along a narrow
ledge which jutted out over the sea some two

106 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

hundred feet below, my brother was enabled to
stalk a number of Guillemots and Razorbills, and
make the picture opposite.

At this place I noticed several Guillemots' eggs
just showing from pools of rain-water, formed by
the peculiar upward slope of the outer edge of the
rock beds. In two or three cases a warm egg was
lying on a dry flat ledge an inch or two above
the immersed one, and so similar were the two in
ground colour and markings that I was at once
reminded of the assertion of cragsmen in various
parts of the country that although this species lays
eggs varying very widely in coloration, an indi-
vidual Guillemot invariably produces a similar type
of egg from year to year. I do not think that
there could be any doubt but that the eggs in the
water had originally been laid on the ledge where
the warm eggs were resting, and that they had
accidentally rolled away and been lost to their
owners for hatching purposes. The St. Kildans
whom I consulted upon the matter were of the
same opinion, and corroborated the statements of
other cragsmen in regard to an individual bird
always laying a similar type of egg.

After the usual difficulties of re- embarkation had
been successfully surmounted we steered for Soa,
which we found to be the most awkward island to
effect a landing upon which we had yet encountered.
Martin in writing of it says: — "It is dangerous to
ascend; the landing is also very hazardous both in
regard of the raging sea on the rock that must be
climbed." He contented himself by watching both
done, a fact which, I am inclined to think, only
lessened his appreciation of the difficulties.

We got ashore, after a great deal of scrambling
and excitement, at a place where the rocks sloped

GUILLEMOTS ON CLIFF.

108 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

at a much more acute angle than the roof of most
houses, and were in addition covered by a crop of
extremely slippery sea-weed. From this point we
were all tied together, Alpine fashion, and began
to ascend the almost perpendicular cliff by the aid
of crannies and ledges, which were in many places
not more than an inch in depth, and barely afforded
a sufficient resting-place for our toes or finger-tips.
On arriving at a place where the precipice was broken
up into huge boulders and shelves which admitted
of easier and safer progress, the men began to give
us an exhibition of their skill with the fowling-rod
amongst the Guillemots and Razorbills. Some of
their captures were so clever that it appeared as if
they exercised some kind of destructive charm over
the poor birds.

My brother commenced to busy himself after
getting a photograph of a Fulmar Petrel sitting
on her egg, and selecting a bird in a particularly
picturesque situation commenced to stalk her very
carefully. At last he came to a place where, by
dint of perseverance and the exercise of consider-
able ingenuity, he was enabled to fix the legs of
his camera into the interstices of the rocks in such
a position as to enable him to focus the bird at
close range. She was very uneasy at first, but by
working very deftly he allayed her fears, and she
sat an absolute picture against the bold mass of
overhanging broken crags. My brother was in a
perfect ecstasy of delight when putting in his
slide, but, alas ! just as he was in the very act of
exposing the plate, a dog, belonging to one of the
men, popped its great ugly head round a corner
close to the Fulmar, and she instantly sprang into
the air and was gone. That cur had good reason
to thank its lucky stars that it got off the Isle of

SNARING PUFFINS. 109

Soa again alive. If the forcible English with
which its intrusion was greeted in stentorian tones
could have been translated into Gaelic for its edifi-
cation I am persuaded it would have entertained
but an ill- opinion of itself.

When we reached a point some five or six
hundred feet up, our boat, which we could see
tossing on the waves below, looked like a little chip.
Nothing was visible of her except her gunwale and
seats, upon which were three small figures — our
friend Mr. Young, and a man and a boy who had
been left in charge.

I got Finlay Gillies to lay a Puffin snare on a
rock which jutted out seawards, and was considered
the favourite spot on all the St. Kilda group of
islands for the sport. Before he laid the engine of
destruction down, the crag had been covered with
birds; but the sight of the bit of rope, weighted at
either end with a stone and crowded with horse-hair
nooses in the middle, made them fight shy of it
for a while as they flew past in perfect clouds.

By-and-by one individual, bolder than the rest,
alighted on the rock, and with an air of foolish
curiosity commenced to step along sideways towards
where the snare was set. He pulled several of the
nooses about with his beak, and after examining
them for awhile grew bolder. Poor bird ! his in-
quisitiveness cost him something; for in the course
of his investigations one of his feet slipped through
a noose, and when he came to lift his leg he dis-
covered that he was a prisoner. He contested his
captivity with great spirit and vigour, to the fright
of all the other members of his species that kept
on flying close past in a continuous and exhaustless
stream, until he became either weary of the struggle
or convinced of its uselessness, and rolled over upon

110 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

his side. Whilst the captive remained quite still
several birds alighted beside him, but directly he
stirred they all promptly decamped. They were
soon back again, however, and fell to poking about
and examining the snare, at which pastime they
were solemnly engaged until their relative in bond-
age had regained his breath and began to beat his
wings violently. At this they started up to fly
away, but one of them suddenly discovered that he
was unable to do so. He had become inextricably
entangled, and without the slightest ado set about
his fellow-prisoner, evidently thinking that he was
the author of all the mischief.

After they had fought and argued, argued and
fought, alternately, over the matter for several
minutes, they effected a temporary reconciliation
and lay on their sides quite still. Presently the
other Puffins came back, and alighting, looked on
in gaping wonderment, everyone, however, taking
flight in the most precipitate manner directly either
of the entangled birds stirred.

In a little while two more Tammy Nories became
fast, and fought with their companions in misfortune
precisely as these had done with each other.

Finlay Gillies stepped along the crag, and sitting
down upon one of the stones securing the snare —
with as much, and probably far more, composure
than he would have shown in a studio — had his
portrait taken, along with that of the birds he had
secured, in a position from which the slightest slip
would have meant a headlong plunge of five hun-
dred feet into the ocean below. Some idea may
be gathered of the nature of the place when it is
stated that the photographer had to be held securely
by a rope whilst making the study.

Two of the Puffins were secured by both legs,

FINLAY GILLIES CATCHING PUFFINS.

112

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

one by a leg and

PUFFIN GIN.

its neck, and another by one
leg only.

Each piece of rope
carries about forty snares
upon it, and seven or
eight Puffins are sometimes
caught at a single haul. In
Martin's time the natives
caught forty or fifty birds
a day with a snare, but one
woman has been known re-
cently to kill as many as
two hundred and eighty,
and another one hundred
and twenty-seven in three
hours.

In former days these
snares must have been made
very much stronger than
they are now and fastened
down with extraordinary
security, if we are to be-
lieve a story recorded by
our old friend Martin, on
the authority of the folks
who lived at the time he
visited St. Kilda. A fowler
whilst setting one of these
snares accidentally got one
of his toes entangled in a
noose, and being thereby
tripped to a fall went over
the edge of a precipice, and
spent the following night
hanging upside down with
nothing but one hundred

ABUNDANCE OF BIRD LIFE. 113

and twenty feet of thin air betwixt himself and the
sea below. The snare, it is pleasant to relate,
proved equal to the strain ; and such was the en-
durance of the fowler that he was recovered alive,
and lived for many a day to tell the tale of his
remarkable adventure.

Some idea may be gathered of the plenitude of
Puffin life at St. Kilda when it is stated, on the
authority of Mr. Sands, who lived there for about nine
months, that in one year alone close upon ninety
thousand birds of this species were killed by the
natives. They are plucked, split open like kippers,
cured, and hung up to dry on strings stretched across
the cottages ; and whenever a native feels hungry
he simply pulls one down from the line, flings it
on the fire to grill, and forthwith has his lunch
without the aid of knife, fork, plate, or napkin.

Soa excelled everything we had ever seen in
the whole of our wanderings in the prodigality of
its bird - life. Puffins simply swarmed in the air
above it, on the rocks and earth of which it is com-
posed, and dotted the sea all round as far as the
powers of a pair of good field-glasses could make
them out. Those on the wing twirled round and
round in a great cloud that perceptibly interfered
with the light of day as it passed over us. The
swish of their wings made a continuous buzz, and
a stone thrown across the path of their flight could
not have failed to bring down one or more victims.
The whole scene simply beggared description, and
the parasites that fell off the birds as they flew
over us swarmed on our caps and jackets, a few of
them finding more succulent quarters, much to our
discomfort and annoyance.

Whilst I was watching the Puffin gin in opera-
tion our friend Mackenzie discovered a brood of
I

114 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

young Wrens hopping in and out amongst the great
boulders of rock, and we all gave chase with the
idea of capturing one of them in order that my
brother might photograph it. We were no match,
however, for the sharp little fellows, who dodged
about through holes and crevices with tantalising
ease and swiftness. Whilst making a desperate
rush after one, cap in hand, and all too unheedful
of the obstacles lying in my path, I struck the toes
of my bootless left foot against a thin slab of earth-
fast stone, which stood edge-on and straight up.
My second toe gave a tremendous crack, which was
heard by one of the boys several yards away, and
I felt a stinging pain that turned me quite sick,
and compelled me to sit down to sweat and bite
my lips in sheer agony. Luckily it was a toe on
my already and long since, injured leg that was
hurt, and after the sickness had passed off a little
I resumed the chase on one foot and two hands,
and in a short while actually succeeded in captur-
ing a Wren. It happened in this way. I saw the
bird go into what proved to be a small cave, and
when I peeped inside discovered it sitting at the
bottom of an inclined plane of black wet peat
three or four yards in. I began to squeeze my
way through the mouth of the cave, but being
somewhat ample about the shoulders I had consider-
able difficulty in passing in. No sooner had I got
the most ponderous part of my anatomy through
than my hands slipped on the slimy peat, and I
slid helplessly to the bottom of the cave. Never-
theless, I kept my eye on the Wren, and had the
good fortune to secure it in a dark nook, from
which there was no escape for the little creature.
The difficulty was now to get out of the dank,
peculiar-smelling place; for every time I placed a

THE CAPTURE OF THE WEEN. 115

knee on the peat I slipped back as if I had been
attempting to climb a steep hillside composed of
soft-surfaced butter. I was so afraid of injuring
my wee captive, which I held in my right hand,
that I only used my elbow to assist me in climb-
ing up the bank. After two or three attempts I
managed to crawl high enough to hand the Wren to
my brother. On finally emerging I was smothered
with peat. Every button on my waistcoat had
scraped up its quantum, and the links of my watch-
chain were filled with the evil -smelling stuff.

A hundred feet or so below the place where
we captured the young Wren we could see several
Fulmar Petrels sitting on their eggs, and my brother
determined to go down after a picture. By follow-
ing a ledge for some distance, and then carefully
working his way down crevices, with his face to
the cliff and his camera held by a strap which he
gripped firmly betwixt his teeth — much in the same
way a Fox is said to carry a heavy Goose to his
lair — he got near to one bird. During the time
occupied by his descent I was lying on a spur of
rock at full length intently watching through my
binoculars the bird he was making for. When he
got pretty close up to her, I saw the Fulmar squirt
a quantity of amber-coloured oil at him. It travelled
three or four feet, describing a kind of half -circle
and falling short of the mark.

As the photographer got nearer and commenced
to fix up his apparatus amongst some huge boulders,
I noticed the bird moving her head and neck rapidly
up and down as if trying to remove some obstacle
from her throat. In less than two minutes she
again ejected a quantity of oil, and as my brother
had actually crept within a yard of her, with much
greater precision and effect. Some of the oil landed

116 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

on the jacket-sleeve of his right arm. He took one
or two photographs of this individual bird at very
close range, but, unfortunately, they turned out to
be failures on account of her having stirred slightly
whilst the plate was exposed.

I believe that Fulmar Petrels are popularly sup-
posed to squirt oil at their enemies from their
tubular nostrils, but this is certainly not the rule. We
saw it ejected from the throat somewhat in the form
of a vigorous expectoration, and according to our

observation it is not propelled

to nearly the distance stated
in some ornithological works.
It is surprising to find that
one authority, who visited the
rocks and studied the species,
says he never saw the bird
squirt oil at its enemies. We
saw this done several times
at dogs when they approached
the more accessible nooks
and ledges on which birds
were brooding. Again the same observer records
that " the Fulmar breeds on the face of the highest
precipices, and only on such as are furnished
with small grassy shelves." We repeatedly found
eggs on shelves and in corners where there was not
a single blade of grass alive or dead ; the nest, if such
it could by any stretch of courtesy be called, simply
consisting of a slight hollow lined with pebbles
and rock chippings, and in some cases of a shallow
declivity in the bare peat without a lining of any
kind whatsoever. It may be, of course, that the
bird has changed its breeding habits as well as its
breeding quarters; for I think there is every reason
for believing that it formerly nested in the Hebrides,

MARTIN'S FULMAR.

FULMAR PETREL ON NEST.

118 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

as an old chronicler records that "A gentleman of
the name of Campbell being fowling among the
rocks of Mull, and having mounted a ladder to
take some birds out of their holes, was so surprised
by one of them squirting a quantity of oil in his
face that he quitted his hold and fell down and
perished." Although the name of the bird is not
mentioned specifically, I think that the use of the
ladder almost proves that it was a Fulmar's nest
which the unfortunate fowler was raiding.

Within the nineteenth century the bird has estab-
lished itself as a breeding species in the Faroes to
the detriment of the Gannet, and only as far back
as 1878 it founded a breeding colony in the
Shetlands. Seton quotes two opinions of the bird,
which placed side by side appear to be ridiculously
contradictory. The St. Kildan proudly says of
it, " Can the world exhibit a more valuable com-
modity ? The Fulmar furnishes oil for the lamp,
down for the bed, the most salubrious food, and
the most efficacious ointment for healing wounds.
Deprive us of the Fulmar, and St. Kilda is no
more." And the Faroese: " Nasty, stinking beast!
Why, even his egg keeps its stench for years ; his
flesh no man can eat ; and if you sleep on a bed
in which even a handful of feathers have been put
by mistake, you will leave it long before morning."

Kenneth Macaulay, who visited the island more
than a century and a quarter ago, says, in writing
of the Fulmar, that "to plunder his nest, or to
offer indignity to it, is a high crime and misde-
meanour." The sacred regard for the bird implied
in this quotation does not seem to have been
maintained, for it is now remorselessly snared upon
its nest during the breeding season on all the
islands except St. Kilda and the Doon.

SOLDIERS' PILLOWS. 119

The facsimile on page 116 of an engraving of
the bird in Martin's book, when compared with our
photograph, illustrates the progress of human effort
towards truth and accuracy during the last two
hundred years.

One authority states that " each Fulmar contains
about half a pint of oil," but my observations and
dissections did not corroborate this estimate. The
oil gives off such a strong odour that everything
in St. Kilda smells of it. I fetched two fowling-
rods away with me as curiosities, but when I got
them home discovered that they could not be
tolerated anywhere in the house. They were,
.therefore, relegated to an exposed corner in the
garden, and remained there bleaching from June to
November, at the end of which time the smell
appeared to have quite gone, and I took them
indoors. In a few days, however, it returned
again with something akin to its former strength.

My friend Mackenzie told me that the feathers
plucked from the Fulmars are mixed with those
of other birds and sold to the Government for
stuffing soldiers' pillows. Before being used they
are thoroughly fumigated, but in about three years
the smell returns to them so strongly that Tommy
Atkins refuses to rest his sleeping head on them
until they have been again roasted.

Some notion may be formed of the number of
birds breeding on St. Kilda and its satellites from the
eggs gathered. Martin says that his party, consisting
of seventy souls all told, consumed sixteen thousand
eggs in three weeks, and that the natives, who were
at that time nearly triple their number, ate many
more, man for man. He saw twenty-nine baskets
of eggs brought down from the rocks in one morning,
each of which held from four to eight hundred.

120 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

In considering these enormous figures it must
not be forgotten that in nearly every case the birds
producing them only lay one egg each — as, for
instance, the Gannet, Fulmar Petrel, Forked- Tailed
Petrel, Stormy Petrel, Manx Shearwater, Guillemot,
Razorbill, and Puffin.

The wind began to freshen from the West, and
as we had done all the work possible on Soa we
commenced to descend. I found this to be an
exceedingly difficult and dangerous matter on
account of my inability to use the left foot, as
the pain in my injured toe was excruciating every
time I attempted to put it to the ground.

When we looked down upon the sea there was
some reason for anxiety. It had risen to such an
alarming extent that it was doubtful whether we
should be able to re-embark. Our boat was jigging
about on the waves in a truly remarkable fashion.

The prospect of a compulsory stay on the isle
of Soa without anything to eat except raw eggs
and sea-birds for days — or maybe weeks — together,
was not pleasant to contemplate. However, a few
days of the discomforts of St. Kilda prepare the
traveller for a deal, especially if he has any heart for
adventure and a taste for the rough side of things.

In due season we arrived within earshot of the
boat, and some piece of intelligence shouted from
it in the Gaelic tongue seemed to electrify the men
who were with us, and there began the most heated
debate we had as yet been compelled to listen to.
It was all yelled back and forth above the boom
of the breakers, and appeared to be a quarrel which
could not possibly end short of the spilling of some-
body's blood. I instinctively turned to my friend
Mackenzie, to see if I could read aught of the con-
sequence of the matter in his face, but it was

A NARROW ESCAPE. 121

hnperturbably placid, and I felt reassured. By-and-
by everybody simmered down to a condition of sweet
reasonableness, and we began the dangerous and
exciting business of re- embarkation. The great dif-
ficulty was to get the boat near enough for us to
make a flying leap aboard, and yet preserve her
from having her timbers stove in upon the rocks,
against which the waves were leaping to tremendous
heights. A big one broke over the corner of a
rock which afforded the craft some shelter, and
drenched its occupants, together with some of our
apparatus, which I fear will for ever bear witness
to the rudeness of the seas running round Soa.

When it came to my turn to enter her, I
cautiously advanced to a point at which there
appeared to be safe foothold in a crevice full of
salt-water and winkle-shells. Here I waited for an
opportunity, whilst the waves broke round my legs
and the boat danced about in front of me in the
most dizzying fashion. At last I thought my chance
had come, and prepared to leap ; but the craft,
instead of rising to where I expected, sank like
a plummet into the trough of the sea. The man
behind me had slacked the safety rope in order to
leave me free to bound forward, and in the absence
of its steadying strain I slipped, overbalanced my-
self, and dived head-foremost into the boat five or
six feet below. I struck one of the seats with my
right shoulder and neck, and saw stars of every
magnitude and colour. I made sure my collarbone
had gone, but luckily I was mistaken. It was a
narrow escape, as I struck the boat's gunwale just
below my right hip, and might have dropped
between her and the rock, in which case I should
have been crushed to death almost to a certainty.
It was a week or two before I lost the black and

122 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

blue mementoes of Soa from various parts of my
body. I now learned from Mr. Young the origin
of the heated debate which I had feared would
end in sanguinary warfare. The Commonwealth
had suffered a loss. In our absence the boat had
tumbled about to such an extent that the boy had
become sea-sick ; the poor fellow had been violently
pitched from one side of the craft to the other,
and falling on one of the great clumsy oars had
broken its ample timbers right in two.

We now pulled away through the Straits divid-
ing Soa from St. Kilda, and I shall never forget
the magnificent sight of the waves at this point.
They rolled in from the open Atlantic like great
green monsters, each more anxious than the rest to
engulf us and our frail barque. There was consid-
erable doubt whether we should ever fetch Village
Bay that night with only three oars, and the men
proposed to land us at the bottom of the Glen in
order that we might walk home ; but I don't think
anybody cared to try that course when they saw
the great white sea-horses leaping upon the rocks
in that quarter, so we rowed slowly past.

When just beneath the towering face of Conagher
I observed a Guillemot of peculiar plumage in the
sea; and as Mr. Young thought it would be an
interesting acquisition to a provincial museum in
which he was interested, we consulted the natives
upon the subject of frightening the birds, and,
after gaining their unanimous consent, the factor
raised his gun and fired. The shot brought about
one of the grandest scenes of bird-life I have ever
seen or expect to see again. The air was instantly
filled with a vast multitude of birds, the noise of
whose countless wings was like the low rumbling
sound of distant thunder. From the topmost ledges

AN AMUSING INCIDENT. ;Ul 123

of Conagher to the caves at its base, more than a
thousand feet below, there poured seawards a great
throng of Fulmar Petrels, Guillemots, Eazorbills,
Puffins, and Shags. As far as the eye could reach
in that direction the cloud of feathered creatures
seemed to extend and confuse the sense of sight
by their evolutions.

In an hour or two we landed in Village Bay,
stiff, tired, cold, wet, sore, and hungry.

It is interesting to note that the St. Kildans,
in landing from their boat on Soa or Borrera,
practise exactly the same methods to-day that their
forefathers did two centuries ago.

In writing of the former island, Martin mentions
an amusing incident which happened there two years
prior to his visit : — " There was a cock-boat came
from a ship for water, being favoured by a perfect
calm ; the men discerned a prodigious number of eggs
upon the rocks which tempted them to venture near
the place, and at last obtained a competent number
of them ; one of the seamen was industrious enough
to put them into his breeches, which he took off
for the purpose. Some of the inhabitants of St.
Kilda who happened to be in the isle that day were
spectators of the diversion, and were offended at
it being done without their consent; they therefore
devised an expedient which at once robbed the
seamen of their eggs and the breeches. ?Twas thus :
they found a few loose stones in the superficies of
the rock, some of which they let fall down per-
pendicularly above the seamen, the terror of which
obliged them quickly to remove, abandoning both
breeches and eggs for their safety ; and the tar-
paulin breeches were no small ornament in a place
where all wore girded plaids."

Of the skill and daring of the St. Kildans as

124 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

cragsmen some opinion may be formed when it is
stated that they climb the tallest of the rock-stacks
(Biorrach) shown in the accompanying picture, which
has been reproduced from a photograph taken whilst
we were on Soa. It is from four to five hundred
feet in height, and has to be ascended without the
aid of a rope. Biorrach is the most difficult rock-
stack to scale in the whole of the St. Kilda group,
and was in former times one of the tests of a man's
nerve when he offered himself as a candidate for
the coveted fold of matrimonial bliss.

A few years ago a couple of fowlers climbed it
for the small reward of a quid of tobacco.

Accidents do not often happen nowadays ; but
to judge from Sir Robert Moray they must have
been of somewhat frequent occurrence in former
times, for he says that a St. Kildan was rarely
known to die in his bed, being either drowned or
having his neck broken by a fall over the cliffs.

The decrease in the death-rate from accidents is
no doubt due to the exercise of greater care whilst
climbing. My brother went out one afternoon along
with one of the young men in order to photograph
a Fulmar's nest and egg, and descended such an
awkward cliff that the St. Kildan never expected
to see him come up alive again, and said that if the
men had been there they would not have allowed
him to go down such a place without a rope.

The fowling-ropes now in use are made of
Manilla hemp, but formerly they were of horse-
hair, which in Martin's time was protected by a
coat of cowhide. I was fortunate enough to
secure the last old rope on the island for half-
a- crown, and upon inquiry discovered that the
hair of which it was composed had cost five
shillings per pound, and that the last man in

126

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

St. Kilda who knew how to make one was long
since dead. My purchase weighs three pounds,
and measures fifty-two feet in length, and is, I
need hardly say, treasured as a prize of con-
siderable value amongst my collection of curiosities.

Kenneth Macau-
lay describes the
fowling-rope in use
at the time of
his visit as thirty
fathoms long, "made
of a strong, raw cow-
hide . . . capable
of sustaining a great
weight, and lasting
for about two gener-
ations." He adds
that u in the testa-
ment of a father it
constitutes the very
first article in favour
of his eldest son;
should it happen to
fall to a daughter's
share in default of
male heirs it is
reckoned equal in
value to the two best
cows in the isle."

Four years ago a girl, whilst watching the men
collect eggs on the Doon, had her petticoats
ballooned by a sudden squall of wind, and was
lifted clean over the cliff. She fell one hundred
and eighty feet without a break, and alighted on a
ledge which was covered with earth. The cragsmen
descended to pick up what they very naturally

HORSEHAIR ROPE.

ST. KILDAN FOWLER

128 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

supposed to be the dead body of the poor
child, but were surprised to find that she was still
alive. Her head had entered a large Puffin burrow,
and the force of the blow been expended upon
her shoulders. This undoubtedly saved her, and
although she hung a whole week between life and
death in an unconscious condition, she ultimately
made a complete recovery, and was a fine buxom
lassie at the time of our visit.

Seton has a note to the effect that the Eider
Duck is only seen occasionally at St. Kilda. I
cannot understand this, for I saw several pairs
nearly every morning in Village Bay, and had a
clutch of eggs offered to me for sale.

If a stray Heron happens to alight upon St.
Kilda the natives firmly believe that they are being
visited by a witch from Stornaway.

It is said the Cuckoo is rarely to be seen
in Hirta, and then only upon such extraordinary
occasions as the death of MacLeod, his steward, or
the arrival of some notable stranger upon the
island. This venerable superstition is more than
two centuries old, and is still believed in as firmly
as ever. In fact, its truth is said to have been
verified only a year or two back, when a bird
visited the island as a presage of the late pro-
prietor's death.

Bees are never seen at St. Kilda, and I very
much doubt whether such insects would find susten-
ance if they ever found their way thither.

On the evening of the 23rd of June we packed
up our things and held a kind of farewell meeting,
at which we distributed our spare tea, coffee,
cheese, butter, and other articles amongst the
people, as we expected the steamer which was to
take us away on the morrow to be in the Bay

ADIEU TO ST. KILDA. 129

in ample time for us to breakfast on board. At
eight o'clock next morning she had not hove in
sight, and when time dragged heavily along till
the stroke of ten was upon us we were all hungry,
and I must confess I was a wee bit home-sick, as
everything looked so cheerless and dismal.

About eleven o'clock the Hebridean steamed into
sight to our great satisfaction, and we speedily
boarded her in search of breakfast.

In due course we shook hands with all the natives,
except two or three who were going with us; and
a hearty hand-shake it was. We had endeared our-
selves to them by frank dealing and readiness to
go where they went, endure what they endured,
give tobacco and sweets, or accept whey and bannock
in the same simple spirit.

This line of conduct is one the value of which
I have proved over and over again, and would
earnestly impress upon every young field naturalist.
It is the royal road to all honest men's hearts, and
will help one to much useful knowledge that will
forever remain hidden from the man who believes
in the cynicism of " every man at his price."

The St. Kildans have sent us their "love" by
nearly every fishing-boat which has put into Village
Bay since we left.

As we steamed away and left the islands in our
wake, I must confess I felt sorry to leave the many
genuine friends we had made, the majestic rocks
and their teeming myriads of birds, and turned again
and again to watch the lonely crags grow smaller
and dimmer upon the horizon.

At Benbecula I parted with my brother, who was
going to Skye to stay with our enthusiastic natural
history friend H. A. Macpherson, and bade adieu to my
companions of tinned provisions and string bed-quilts.

130 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

When the boat in which I sailed reached Tiree,
a thick drizzling mist came down and enveloped
everything in sombre gloom. A steamer which had
just left the island returned and cast anchor rather
than risk the dangers of proceeding in such weather ;
but our captain thought he could fetch the Isle of
Coll, and accordingly we crept out and away. The
sea was perfectly smooth, and not a soul on board
recked of danger, except one elderly gentleman who
had been already twice in the jaws of maritime
disaster. This aged Ulysses told me he had suffered
the thrilling horror of having his ship crushed to
splinters amongst the ice in high latitudes, and spend-
ing three days and nights in an open boat before
he reached the shores of Greenland, on one occasion ;
and had been obliged to quit a foundering vessel in
the middle of the North Sea on another. These
disasters and the hand of Time had to some extent
robbed a very fine old man of his nerve ; but his ex-
pressed fears of an accident were presently justified.

We had steamed our allotted distance without
meeting with any signs of Coll, and were proceed-
ing at a very cautious rate when suddenly a huge
red buoy loomed in sight just ahead of us. The
captain at once put his helm hard down, but, un-
fortunately, the boat had not sufficient way upon
her to answer to it, and we crept steadily on to
a sunken rock. There was a bump and two
crunches, and the steamer stopped dead, with her
bows in the air and a list to starboard. At the
moment, I was leaning against a rail studying some
horses on the cargo- deck amidships. When the
vessel struck, the poor animals stumbled and drummed
with their feet on the planks, those with their heads
to starboard bumping them against her plates as she
heeled over and robbed them of their balance.

ON THE ROCKS. 131

All the quoit-playing and fun on board suddenly
ceased, and the cry went round " We're on the
rocks ! " which was true enough, inasmuch as they
could be plainly seen from the forecastle deck. The
tragic fate of the people who had gone down with
the Drummond Castle a few days before was still
clinging with all its horrors to the minds of most
of our passengers, whose fears were heightened
when they saw the crew begin to lower the boats.

No sooner had the ship struck than I dived
below for my box of St. Kilda negatives, which
had been stowed away for safety in the grog cellar
beneath the saloon deck, now thickly strewn with
broken wine glasses that had been shaken from
their place over the dining table.

The order went round that nothing in the shape
of luggage could be taken in the boats. I was
quite willing to let my clothing and collection of
natural history specimens and curiosities go to the
bottom, but the St. Kilda negatives I simply
couldn't give up. They appealed to me like dumb
children, and I, on their behoof, to one of the
officers with all the eloquence I could summon; but
Ids heart was as adamant, and he regarded not my
pleadings.

The situation was curious and extremely interest-
ing, for it afforded me an opportunity of noting
the behaviour of my fellow creatures in the hour of
danger. One little man cut a ridiculous figure by
rushing about affecting to be very brave and cool,
yet trembling like an aspen-leaf in every limb and
looking as white as if he had just shaken hands with
a ghost, all the while worrying the crew with such
questions as — " Has she got water-tight bulkheads?"
" Is the water coming into her ? " and so on, to each
of which he received a courteous " Yes" or "No" as

132 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

the answer was judged to be good for his mental
comfort, without the slightest regard whatever for
the truth.

We had a number of ladies on board, and in
justice to them I must say that as a whole they
were much cooler than the men. One level-headed,
practical little Scotswoman, with a delightful accent
and happy phraseology, was conspicuous for her
good sense and reassuring coolness. Another, who
turned out to be a hospital nurse on her holidays,
earned my profound admiration by comforting a
poor, half -blind St. Kilda woman on her way to a
Glasgow Eye Infirmary to have some ophthalmic
disease, from which she was suffering acutely,
attended to. The poor creature fell into the most
pitiable state of fear when she became aware of
our plight, and cried and wailed in a heartrending
fashion. I could not bear to look upon her distress
as she clung tightly to her comforter and swayed
back and forth moaning in anguish all the while.

Two things struck me particularly during the
scene of excitement. One was that several men
whose physical appearance was suggestive of robust
health and strong nerves were the greatest cowards,
and the other that nine out of ten of the male
passengers could, according to their expressed
opinions to each other, have managed the boat
far better than the captain himself, who had been
born within a mile or two of the rock we were on,
and had steered his ship past it in all weathers for
twenty years without a mishap.

Luckily for us the sea was smooth and the tide
rising. By shifting all the passengers and a quan-
tity of the deck cargo aft, and steaming full-speed
astern, after about twenty minutes of suspense we
ground our way off the rock into deep water. An

THE REWARD OF INTELLIGENCE. 133

examination was at once made below by the
engineer for a leak, but as none could be found
we steamed slowly away on our journey.

Nearly everybody stayed on deck during the
night, and beguiled the weary hours by telling
stories, singing songs, and shivering in the cold,
murky drizzle that made the dangerous Sound of
Mull exceedingly difficult to navigate.

I went below once, and found the saloon tenanted
only by a burly horse-dealer and another man,
having the appearance of a whisky traveller, holding
high debate with a strapping farmer's daughter from
North Uist on certain equine ills. I think I fell
asleep during a lull on ring-bone, and woke up in
the middle of a storm on spavins. The young
woman was more than a match for her adversaries,
and when she saw me smile approval at some little
advantage she had gained in her war of words,
promptly walked over to where I was sitting and
rewarded my intelligence with a handful of oat
bannock and skimmed-milk cheese which she took
from a small hand-bag.

We reached Oban Bay at three o'clock in the
morning, and as day dawned fifteen minutes later,
I heard a Thrush begin to sing and a Cuckoo to
" tell his name to all the hills around."

As it was Saturday, and I was anxious to spend
the following day at home before returning to busi-
ness in London early on the Monday morning, I left
the boat, and several other passengers followed my
example ; amongst them my twice- ship wrecked friend,
and the little man who had striven so strenuously
and vainly to assume the appearance of courage.
As the first train did not start south until six o'clock
and all the hotel keepers were locked in slumber,
we went into the night porter's room at the railway

134 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

station, where there was a good fire, and sat round
in sombre meditation.

Our little friend feeling sleepy, stretched himself
face downwards on a huge table with his field-glasses
for a pillow. He snored magnificently for the space
of twenty minutes, and then startled us by jumping
up as if he had been shot and yelling out, " We've
been on the rocks ! we've been on the rocks ! "

Not recognising either of his late shipmates, he
began to tell us a tale of his adventures and hair-
breadth escapes, that went far towards eclipsing the
ups and downs of Robinson Crusoe, and made me
long madly after the godlike gift of picturesque
exaggeration.

PUFFIN

CHAPTER IV.

GAMEKEEPERS: THEIR FRIENDS AND FOES.

IPvURINGr our travels in search of materials for
-*-' camera and notebook we have naturally fallen
in with many gamekeepers and learnt a great deal
about their friends and enemies, and it is my inten-
tion to give in the present chapter some account of
what we have heard and seen whilst wandering about
on great game preserves in all parts of the country.

Gamekeepers as a class are shrewd, practical
fellows, with an intense belief in what they know
from experience, and an extreme contempt for any-
thing in the nature of book-learning about the life
of the fields, woods, and moors.

I have surprised many of them, who would
listen to my bird stories with good-natured in-
credulity, by proving a practical knowledge of the
ways of vermin and the best methods of stopping
their ravages; and one at least attests the value
of my advice in regard to destroying common
Brown Rats.

He was telling me what trouble these artful
depredators gave him, and of their cunning in
avoiding his traps. I said, " You should place
your steel gins in that water" (pointing to a
shallow creek crossed by a rat-track running along
the side of a small lake) " if you want to catch
them."

136 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

He adopted the advice, and with so much
success that he afterwards told a friend of mine,
who happened to cross his path, that whether 1
knew anything about birds or not I had certainly
taught him one of the best ways of catching rats
that he " had ever tried or heard tell of."

At one place in the Hebrides, where we stayed
for a few days, we became on very good terms with
a gamekeeper who was much troubled by several
pairs of Peregrine Falcons that were, with the help
of Golden Eagles and other birds of prey, com-
mitting sad havoc amongst the Grouse breeding on
his beat.

We accompanied him one day on a long journey,
which he undertook in order to try to shoot a
female Peregrine as she flew from her eyrie,
situated in a horizontal fissure running for a yard
or two along the face of a gigantic precipice.
We climbed to the foot of the cliff, and when the
keeper had sufficiently regained his breath to enable
him to take aim with tolerable certainty I made a
noise to disturb the sitting bird, but in vain, she
would not stir a feather. Thereupon our friend
drew one of his " wire " cartridges, and putting in a
smokeless ordinary, straightway fired. The Falcon
instantly darted out, and before the reverberations of
his first shot had commenced to kiss the rocks across
the loch at our feet the keeper had dispatched his
second message of lead heavenwards in pursuit of
the fleeing bird. But the distance was too great to
permit of any damage being done, and after flying
round and round high overhead for a little while
uttering her wailing alarm note " Kek, kek, keky
kek," the Peregrine came down, boldly alighted on
a jutting crag, and watched us calmly from her
coign of vantage some three hundred feet above.

HIGHLAND GAMEKEEPER AND SOME OF HIS TROPHIES.

138 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

The cliff could not have been less than four
hundred feet in height, and as the eyrie was
situated midway betwixt its base and summit the
bird was practically out of gunshot, whether
approached from the top or bottom.

After we left, the gamekeeper thinking that by
the exercise of a little patience he could destroy
the eggs, kept the parent birds off the nest for
six consecutive hours, but to no purpose, for the
faithful Peregrines ultimately brought off their
young ones in safety.

A strange peculiarity of many birds of prey is
their unconquerable love for an old breeding haunt.
If the female is killed the male flies away, and
often returns in an incredibly short space of time
with another mate.

Amongst other interesting things which our
friend told us about Peregrine Falcons was an
instance of two male birds living in perfect harmony
with one female. It came about in this way. He
had shot a female from her eyrie in a cleft of rock,
and placing a trap for the male, discovered a day
or two afterwards that he had been in it and taken
his departure minus a leg. In a little while this
legless bird returned with a male and female, and
they all three occupied the old nesting-quarters in
the utmost peace.

The same gamekeeper also told us that he had
seen one of these birds strike the head clean off a
Grouse whilst in full flight by one blow of its
powerful wing.

In the spring of 1896 my brother returned to
this part of Scotland in the hope of getting a
photograph of a Golden Eagle sitting on her eggs,
but found it impossible to do so on account of the
bird's exceeding shyness, and the fact that he could

ADDER BASKING.

140 WITH NATURE AND A' CAMERA.

not command a view of the eyrie from any point
at which he could use his telephoto lens.

One day, whilst out with an old game-watcher,
he espied an Adder basking in the sunshine close
to the path along which they were walking. His
companion waxed so loudly eloquent about his
prowess in having slain a reptile of the same species
a few days before that he was asked to speak low
lest the Adder should hear him and be off before
he could photograph it. This heathenish admission
of ignorance was most unfortunate, and stirred
poor Sandy's theological sentiments to their pro-
foundest depths. Affecting a great air of surprise
he puffed in his beard, and with a fine mixture of
scorn and sorrow exclaimed — " Och, mon, did ye
niver read the Scriptures ? Talk of an Adder
hearing ye, indeed ! " — doubtless having the natural
history of the fourth and fifth verses of the fifty-
eighth Psalm in his mind : " The deaf adder that
stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the
voice of the charmer, charming never so wisely."

The foregoing picture of the reptile was made
before it was added to a long list of victims in
our friend's mental calendar of destruction.

On the occasion of this second visit a pair of
Peregrine Falcons were breeding at the far end of
the beat, eleven miles away across the mountains ;
and as the gamekeeper and his watcher were going
to pay the place a visit in order to try to shoot
the depredators, my brother volunteered to accom-
pany them on their expedition. Accordingly they
all started out at three o'clock one fine morning
for the scene of action.

When they arrived at the cliff they discovered
that the female would not be driven from her charge
by any noise they could make by hand-clapping

PEREGRINES AND MERLINS. 141

or shouting-, so it was arranged that the watcher
should frighten her off by firing his gun. This
was done, and she instantly fluttered out. Bang !
bang! bang! went three shots, and away flew the
Falcon fatally wounded, according to the verdict
of her would-be slayers.

They now descended to a cottage some little
distance below, and waited to see whether the male
bird would turn up to take his share of the labours
of incubation. In a little while he flew into the
eyrie, and the keepers crept stealthily towards the
place. As soon as they arrived at a satisfactory
point one of them cried out, and their chance came.
Four barrels were emptied in a skyward direction,
but despite this liberal expenditure of lead the
Peregrine sailed away, apparently none the worse.

Both birds subsequently returned to the eyrie
as full of life and mischief as when they left it.

The Merlin, or u Stone Falcon," as it is called
in some parts of the country, is the smallest and
pluckiest winged enemy the moorland gamekeeper
has to contend with. It breeds in the deep heather
and preys upon young Grouse and small birds,
which are plucked on little u knowes " at some
distance from the nest, round which there is hardly
a feather to be seen. Last summer we were shown
a nest on the Westmorland hills containing four
eggs, arid succeeded in inducing the farmer, on
whose property it was situated, to spare them and
the young ones, which were subsequently hatched,
and of which we made a photograph.

I have canvassed the opinions of many intel-
ligent gamekeepers of wide experience upon the
vexed question of killing hawks and owls, and
although my sympathies are with the birds, I must
admit that their arguments in defence of their action

142 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

are, so far . as they are concerned, unanswerable.
They say "We are poor men hired expressly to pre-
serve game for those who love the sport of shooting,
and as game and vermin don't thrive together we
are obliged to look after the survival of the most
profitable."

" I have no particular ill-will towards the birds
you name," said one old fellow, " but is it likely
that I can allow my own sentiment, or that of other
folks whom I do not even know, to rob my wife
and children of their bread-and-butter ? "

Another said: "Now, look here, sir, people talk
a lot of nonsense about the innocence of the Kestrel,
which is really as bad a hawk as flies. I have
known one keep on harrying my young Pheasants
until he had carried off twenty-four, which would
have been worth something like a pound a-piece to
my 'guv'nor' if they had lived to be shot at. He
was so artful that I could never get within shot of
him. I have seen the rascal stoop and pick up a
chick, and when I have fired my gun off drop it
again from fear. In some cases the little creature
would run back to its foster-mother in a coop, ap-
parently none the worse for the adventure, but
in others the bird would die from its injuries."

Other keepers have told us similar woeful tales
about the Kestrel's depredations. It is shot as it
leaves its nest, and occasionally trapped.

One day, whilst walking alongside a dry wall
dividing a newly -planted copse from some grazing
land in the Highlands of Scotland, we noticed a
hummock of freshly-piled stones which excited our
curiosity. Upon examining it, we discovered a
vermin trap and the hind leg of a Mountain Hare
inside it. On repassing the same place an hour or
two afterwards, we were much amused by a young

YOUNG MERLINS.

KESTREL IN TRAP.

144

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

Pheasant running down a cart-wheel rut for a con-
siderable distance before it could get out. Just
when the downy little creature came opposite the
hummock of stones, a break in the side of the rut
enabled it to escape and disappear in the copse.

8TOAT IN TRAP

On stopping to watch him it occurred to my brother
to examine the trap again, and upon doing so we
were surprised to find that it held a wicked-looking
Stoat firmly within its grip, and a photograph was
at once taken of the unfortunate captive.

I have often trapped these little animals with
what is known in North Yorkshire as a " Samson
Post," and in other parts of the country as a
" Figure of Four," from the resemblance which the

HEDGEHOG.

FIGURE-OF-FOUR TRAP.

K

146 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

sticks when set in position bear to that numeral
when written in the old-fashioned way. In encom-
passing the destruction of Stoats and Weasels, I
have always been far more successful with the flesh
of a Blackbird as bait than that of either a Grouse,
Plover, Starling, or Rabbit.

Hedgehogs are ruthlessly slain by gamekeepers
on account of their mischievous habits amongst
the eggs and young of Partridges and Pheasants.
They are easily caught in figure- of -four traps.

As an instance of the vexatious losses game-
keepers whose beats are near large Rookeries
suffer, especially in dry springs, my brother had
a Pheasant's nest containing seventeen eggs — doubt-
less the production of two females — shown him in
Mull in 1896 by a couple of gamekeepers, who were
naturally proud of the clutch. Happening to pass
the place a few days afterwards he noticed three
or four Rooks fly up from the nest and alight on
an adjoining tree. Upon examining it, he found
only three eggs of the seventeen remaining intact.

I used to help a Yorkshire gamekeeper to dis-
sect Rooks which he shot and poisoned in the
spring on his moor, which in droughty weather
they would fly nine or ten miles to visit, and have
a very vivid recollection of his pardonable rage
when we found pieces of the shell of Grouse eggs
in one or two of them.

On one occasion I watched a number of Rooks
pull the nearly-fledged young ones out of a Black-
bird's nest situated in a large hole under the top
" through "of a dry stone wall close to Kirkby
Stephen in Westmorland.

Although Rooks are very interesting birds, I am
sorry to say that I regard them under certain con-
ditions as little less mischievous than Carrion Crows.

YOUNQ RAVEN ON NEST.

SUZZARP IN TRAP.

148 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

A Scottish game-watcher once told me that when-
ever he shot a hen Raven as she flew off her nest,
if he could not secure the eggs the cock always
devoured them, and then went off in search of a
fresh mate.

Whilst in the Highlands of Scotland my brother
was shown a projecting crag covered with grass and
moss, in the side of a come, upon which a young
gamekeeper told him a male Buzzard deposited
food for his sitting mate, whose nest was situated
some forty or fifty feet away. It had then lying
upon it one young rabbit, not quite half -grown,
and fragments of others, but so far as he could
see no birds of any kind. As it was in a fairly
accessible position he descended to it, and made a
photograph, which is here reproduced.

Although I do not think the common Buzzard
is regarded as a particularly dangerous bird by
game preservers, it is trapped in the following
manner : A young rabbit is killed, and after being
partly flayed is tied down in a spring or small
stream. This done, a little knoll is built close beside
it, and a trap, carefully hidden by moss, placed on
the top. No sooner has the unsuspecting bird
espied the tempting meal than it either alights
on the knoll or drags the carrion thereon to
devour it, and is caught by one or both legs, as
shown in our illustration on the preceding page,
which is from a photograph taken in the Hebrides.

The Red Grouse is the only bird which we
can claim as purely indigenous to the British
Isles. Incredible sums are now spent every year
for the privilege of rearing and shooting the bird ;
and so exhilarating is the sport that I have known
well-to-do farmers tramp thirty or forty miles a
day as beaters for three shillings and sixpence and

150

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

their luncheon, and declare that sooner than miss
the fun they would rather pay to be allowed to go
driving " Moorcocks."

The illustration opposite shows a Grouse's nest
in a bed of rushes — a situation in which I have
never seen or heard of one before. It was found
by my brother in Westmorland last year. Grouse
sit very closely upon their nests. I once knew a

YOUNG GROUSE

clumsy shepherd tread upon one, and the poor
bird left all her tail feathers firmly pinned betwixt
the edge of her nest and his iron-plated boot toe.

A good gamekeeper having a Grouse moor under
his charge takes pains to be on the best of terms
with shepherds, as a clutch of eggs is easily trodden
on by accident or otherwise, and the driving of a
flock of sheep at a brisk pace across a few acres
of heather in May is likely to produce a good deal
of disappointment in August. Shepherds' dogs, too,
often need careful watching, as they will occasionally

GROUSE'S NEST IN RUSHES.

152 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

kill sitting hens before they can get off their nests
and swallow wee " poults " in the most business-
like way. I knew one great lanky conspicuous-
ribbed mongrel in North Yorkshire that was guilty
of this and another curious practice. He must have
been of French extraction, for he would swallow
young frogs as fast as he could find them.

Sheep farmers' cats often take to a feral life
and do a great amount of damage amongst Grouse
in the breeding season. Some five or six years ago
I was out with a gamekeeper in the North of Eng-
land after a Sparrow-hawk that had made her nest
in a little ghyll which divided a number of heather-
clad pastures that were full of sitting Grouse. In
crossing one of these pastures, on our way to another
part of the beat, we came upon an ominous-looking
train of feathers. In one direction it led to a head-
less female Grouse, and in the other to a nest con-
taining seven eggs, from three of which protruded
the cold tips of little beaks. I stood by looking
on in sad silence, whilst the keeper vented his rage
in entirely unprintable language. We turned back
into the ghyll where my companion had some steel
gins hidden, and whilst he made a stone passage
five or six feet long by twelve inches high and
seven or eight wide, I took off my jacket and
tickled a mountain trout under a moss-clad boulder.
The stone passage was built on a fairly level bit
of ground, close to some great loose rocks under
which the feline depredator was probably hiding
at the time. The trout was suspended in the
middle of the passage, and a trap carefully covered
with moss laid on the floor of it at either end,
and the next morning that keeper avenged the
headless Grouse. No cat can resist a trout as bait,
and no gamekeeper who knows his business ever

CAT TRAP.

153

talks about victims of this kind, or owns to having
seen a cat of any colour, size, or shape on his beat.

In the South of England, where the conditions
are different, mischievous cats are caught by a trap
popularly known amongst some keepers as " Bill
Adams," from
its terribly de-
structive char-
acter. It is
baited with a
herring and
often placed on
a plank thrown
across a stream,
as shown in our
illustration. Just
as pussy steps
softly beneath a
kind of trium-
phal arch, its
weight releases
a bit of cunning
machinery, and a
couple of doors
swiftly close,
one before and
one behind,
and all chance of escape is instantly cut oft'.

I recollect once seeing an old Yorkshire game-
keeper catch a Fox in a very ingenious and, I
should think, ancient form of trap, which he called
a "kist," probably a corruption of chest. He had
traced the animal into a hole amongst some rocks,
just after a fall of snow, and barred it in by care-
fully walling up every means of egress. This done,
he levelled and roughly flagged a path seven or

CAT TRAP

154 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

eight feet in length, and leading straight away
from the hole at which the Fox had entered. Upon
this path he built a substantial passage, nine or ten
inches wide by twelve or thirteen in height, which
narrowed somewhat abruptly at its outer end into
a mere slit through which it was impossible for
the prisoner to escape. About one-third of the
distance from the end of the passage, built over
the hole by which Reynard had entered his lair,
the stones forming the sides and roof were so
arranged as to allow a heavy slate to work up
and down with ease in the form of a sluice.
The slate had a hole through its upper part, and
to this was tied a strong piece of string which
was passed over a smooth stick arranged like a
trestle close to the slate, so as to suspend it in a
perfectly plumb position and thus allow it to work
up and down with ease. The string then ran
forward to another trestle placed almost directly
over the outer end of the passage, and finally ended
in a small brass ring, which was passed over the
end of a short piece of stick protruding horizontally
from the slit. Directly the Fox came forward
along the passage and began to sniff the fresh air
and try to widen the slit by scratching, he put his
foot on the inner end of the stick and at once
so depressed it that the brass ring slipped off its
opposite end and released the slate, which instantly
fell and effectually barred retreat to his stronghold
in the rocks.

Foxes caught in this way are often shown round
amongst hill farmers, who are very glad to see such
inveterate enemies of their Geese in captivity, and
then ruthlessly slain, or taken to some huntable
part of the country and turned down in front of a
pack of hounds.

156 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

A farmer, whose flock of Geese suffered severely
on a Fox-infested moor in the North of England,
conceived the notion that if he hung a small bell
to the neck of his Gander its tinkling would scare
the marauders away. The idea answered its pur-
pose admirably for a while, but the cunning thieves
soon came to understand that it was a harmless con-
trivance, and actually killed the bird wearing the
noisy piece of metal.

The Grouse poacher used to be a great thorn in
the side of the man of velveteen, but he is now an
almost vanished figure.

I know one old man well who years ago used
to don a white shirt and pair of sheep-shearing
drawers of the same colour over his ordinary attire,
and on a bright moonlight night, when snow lay
thick upon the ground, he would steal forth from
his house, which stood on the edge of a moor, and
creeping quietly up to a flock of sleeping Grouse,
deal death amongst them by a shot from his old
single-barrel, directed where he saw the most birds
in line.

Although the Grouse poacher of the picturesque
old school has almost disappeared, his place has
been taken up by a man here and there, where
peculiar circumstances permit it, whose methods
are loudly anathematised by sportsmen, and espe-
cially by those whose game he bags. We have
been fortunate enough to secure an interview with
one of these men, and a series of photographs of
him at work with his engines of destruction.

He rents a small piece of heather-clad freehold
land, surrounded by some of the very best Grouse
moors in the British Islands, and as soon as the
shooting season commences he plants two thousand
copper wire snares, which he calls " hanks," in the

GROUSE NETTING. 157

sheep tracks, along which Grouse love to run, and
erects nets in such positions as the birds are likely
to fly over in entering or crossing his domain. These
nets are seven or eight feet in height by about one
hundred yards in length, and he sometimes secures
as many as thirty victims at a time in one of them.

Occasionally, when a bird is flying with a strong
wind behind it the impetus derived from its in-
creased speed will drive it clean through the net, but
the threads forming its meshes are not broken with-
out doing some damage to their destroyer, which
drops on the other side either dead or with both
wings broken. If a Grouse happens to strike the
wire from which the net is suspended with its
neck, it at once decapitates itself, and the severed
head generally twirls high in the air.

This man has sometimes taken as many as fifteen
brace of Grouse out of his snares in a single morning ;
and, as will be seen from the picture on page 159,
he very obligingly allowed himself to be photo-
graphed in the act of resetting one from which he
had just obtained the bird protruding from his
jacket pocket. These snares are particularly de-
structive, because driven Grouse fly into the bit
of freehold as a haven of rest, and when they have
been shot at and thoroughly disturbed they run
about in a state of agitation, and many of them
become fatally entangled in the innocent-looking
bits of wire.

The old man also shoots a bit, and has a
favourite pointer bitch, eighteen years old, and so
infirm that she cannot leap over a wall of any
height worth mentioning. Her master, who is very
fond of his canine friend, therefore lifts her on to
the top of any stone fence they desire to cross, and
there she sits watching him until he himself has

158 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

surmounted the obstacle, when he tenderly conveys
her to the ground.

She is quite conscious of the great esteem in
which she is held, and imposes upon her good-
natured owner accordingly. When the time came
for her to have her portrait taken along with her
master and their day's bag, she obstinately refused
to sit until a piece of warm dry carpet had been
provided for her especial accommodation and com-
fort. The old man explained her conduct just as
if he had been talking about his wife. She had
been suddenly woke up from a sound sleep, and
was indulging in a bit of temper on account of
not being allowed to finish her nap.

The lessee of the surrounding moor has tried
many more or less ingenious devices to spoil the
old fellow's sport and reduce his plunder, but with
little success. A brace of tethered Falcons, so placed
as to scare the Grouse away from his bit of freehold,
came within legal reach of his gun and perished;
a number of flags erected all round mysteriously
disappeared one dark night; and a wooden hut,
built for the accommodation of a couple of watchers,
accidentally caught fire whilst its occupiers were
supping of sociability at some farm-house in the
valley below.

Of course, it is not illegal to snare or net Grouse,
however unsportsmanlike it may be considered, pro-
vided the man who does so is upon land where he
has the necessary right to do so, and is armed with
a licence to kill game ; but he must take all his
snares up on Saturday night, as the law resents
the Sabbath being broken by profane bits of wire
hanging about like round O's amongst the heather.
Our old friend was caught napping in this direction
last year, and was fined for his wickedness.

SNARING GROUSE.

160 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

A favourite method of poaching Grouse by those
who still indulge a little in illicit gunning is known
as " becking." It is a much more sportsmanlike
business than netting or snaring, and is often use-
fully employed by gamekeepers in October and
November for killing off a number of superfluous
and very artful old cocks that stick to the higher
ground.

When I was a lad I used to go "becking" with
a keeper nearly every suitable Saturday morning
in the late autumn, and have probably lured more
Moorcocks to their destruction in this way than
any youngster living. My companion was an ex-
cellent shot, and together we have on many occasions
bagged six brace of birds by breakfast-time.

" Becking " consists of getting up very early in
the morning and reaching the deep moss hags before
the first peep of day. I have on many occasions
called a bird within shot before there was sufficient
light to see it by whilst on the ground. At the
very first suggestion of day-dawn Grouse begin to
stir ; the males fly twenty or thirty feet into the
air, and come down slowly with their heads thrown
back and their tails erect, whilst they utter their
resounding " err, beck, beck, beck," and alighting
on a "knowe," finish with a more deliberate " go-
back, goback, goback." The females utter their
peculiar call-note, which is much easier to imitate
than to represent by the characters of the alphabet.
It sounds something like " yap, yap, yap," or " yowk,
yowk, yowk," and can be reproduced by compressing
the nostrils with the index finger and thumb and
then emitting the breath in sharp, forced gasps.
There are various other methods of calling, but by
far the most successful is that of sucking quickly
at the stem of a clay tobacco-pipe. With the bowl

A COUPLE OF VETERANS.

162 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

of an ordinary " churchwarden " and six or seven
inches of stem, I would at any time undertake to
create such magic sounds as would effectually deceive
the most experienced gamekeeper, shepherd, or old
cock Grouse that ever crossed a moor.

The great secret of successful "becking" is to
get on to the ground where it can be done before
the birds begin to stir in the morning, to keep
well out of sight, and to call creditably.

As a rule, Grouse are very talkative, and come
well to call on frosty mornings between the first
peep of day and sunrise ; but directly the sun shows
its ruddy disc above the Eastern hills, they become
as silent as the grave. The fact is grace has been
said and breakfast begun. On some mornings when
conditions appear to be ideal the birds are almost
silent, and keep on flying restlessly to and fro, and
a wet day generally follows. Most poachers who
go "becking" prefer a misty to a frosty morning,
as the birds will come quite as well to their imitative
blandishments, and often continue to do so right up
till noon ; hiding is also easier, and the report of
a gun travels but little.

On frosty mornings birds will fly long distances,
by stages, to answer a call, and I have brought
them so close that a shot would have blown them
to pieces. Hens often respond quite as well as
cocks. If the "becker" happens to start calling
close to a company of Grouse, an old male will run
up on to a "knowe" or other eminence, and if he
catches sight of his deceiver at once utters his
alarm-note of "Cock, cock, cock!" and flies away;
but if not, and he is bowled over, another and
another will in all probability run up and take his
place until four or five victims have been ac-
counted for.

GROUSE AND THE FROST. 163

It is a glorious experience, and one which I
have enjoyed many, many times, to sit on a bit of
bleached sandstone at the bottom of a peat hag
during a fine November morning and watch the
rising sun purple the Eastern sky, whilst all around
the Grouse are making the air ring with their noble
music. It sometimes happens that when the whole
countryside appears to be literally alive with birds
a sudden silence falls upon the land, and the listener
is at a loss to understand the reason why, until a
distant hoarse croak or the appearance of a black
speck far away up in the sky tells him of the
presence of a Raven.

Grouse are occasionally driven to terrible straits
in winter time. Whilst the snow is light and
powdery they easily scratch their way down to
the heather, or the wind soon bares exposed situa-
tions and renders their food accessible ; but if a
heavy fall of snow should occur in a dead calm
and then be immediately followed by a partial
thaw and hard frost, their sustenance is hermetically
sealed and they are reduced to an almost helpless
condition.

In the memorable winter of 1895 great numbers
of Grouse perished from starvation on the Northern
hills; and whilst nest-hunting in Westmorland
ghylls and Yorkshire dales the following spring my
brother and I found skeletons every day, coming
across as many as eight in the neighbourhood of
Kirkby Stephen on a single ramble. During the
extremely rigorous weather it was not an uncommon
sight to see the bolder ones feeding unconcernedly
along with barn-door Fowls in farm-yards, and even
running along the streets of market towns. Whilst
in the valleys they fed upon hips, hazel catkins,
and the buds of hawthorns, and, curiously enough,

164 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

some of them roosted in the trees in which they
fed. I had several birds that had been starved to
death sent to me for dissection, and not one of
them had a piece of gravel in its gizzard. The
crop of one female, which had apparently died just
after feeding, contained no less than 4,225 buds
and small pieces of slender twigs. Some idea may
be gathered of the privations these poor birds had
to endure when it is mentioned that one male sent
me only turned the scale at sixteen and a half
ounces. He came from Upper Swaledale, where
the late Mr. George Brook, an exceedingly careful
observer, killed male birds in the late autumn
weighing twenty-eight and even up to thirty-two
ounces.

The accompanying illustration represents a friend
of ours and his loader in the act of shooting driven
Grouse on one of the best moors in the North of
England.

Pheasant rearing is the most important business
of a woodland gamekeeper's life. The eggs are
gathered from hedgebanks and woods and placed
under barn-door fowls in hatching-boxes, which are
all numbered and dated on the lid or door, so that
the keeper in charge can tell when the chicks are
due to appear. The picture on p. 167, representing
a pheasant hatchery, was obtained on one of the
largest and best preserved mixed game estates in
England. In front of the hatching-boxes was a
double row of wooden pegs driven into the ground,
to each of which was attached a piece of string with
a running noose at the end. When the fowls were
taken off the nests to be fed the noose was slipped
over one foot, and the string being so arranged in
regard to length as to prevent one bird from inter-
fering with another, quarrelling and stealing each

166 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

other's food were effectually avoided. A quantity
of food, also a dish containing a supply of fresh
water, were placed beside each peg. Seventeen
pheasants' eggs are placed under an average-sized
hen, and the keeper who sees fifteen chicks out of
this number is well pleased. A dry, hot season is
considered worse than a warm damp one for hatch-
ing purposes, and during the prevalence of the
former kind of weather the eggs are slightly
sprinkled with water whilst the hen is off feeding.
In spite, however, of this helpful precaution many
chicks die in their shells, apparently without the
necessary strength to break forth. In addition to
dogs chained up at different points, this hatchery
was encircled by a fine copper wire, placed about
a couple of feet from the ground and attached to
the trigger of an alarm gun affixed to the window-
sill of the keeper's sleeping-room, from which he
could instantly bolt after any prowling egg-stealer.

Pheasants' eggs vary considerably in intensity of
coloration. Lord Walsingham's head-keeper told
me that stiff clay land on which pheasants feed
produces dark- coloured eggs, and a light, sandy soil
pale-coloured ones, and this contention he certainly
supported by several instances which he brought
under my notice, although other keepers to whom
I have mentioned the circumstance have no faith
in its accuracy.

One of the most marvellous provisions of Nature
for the protection of a bird during a vitally im-
portant period of its history is the one first pointed
out by Mr. Tegetmeier of the Field, a veteran
pheasant-rearing authority. He discovered that
whilst a hen pheasant is sitting on her eggs in a
wild state the natural scent thrown off her body
at all other seasons of the year has the course of

168 WITS NATURE AND A CAMERA.

its travels reversed from outwards to inwards, and
passes away with the excreta, thus rendering the
bird's chances of discovery by a prowling enemy
materially less.

When young pheasants are hatched off they are
placed out in a clean field in coops, along with
their foster-mothers, and watched night and day
by the keepers in charge. In spite of this, how-

PHEASANT ON NEST.

ever, they are sometimes stolen, and I know one
keeper in the Home Counties who had nearly all
his young birds taken away in a single night, al-
though they were being guarded by two watchers,
who had unfortunately had too much beer and
gone to sleep, and a retriever dog.

The life of a gamekeeper who knows his duty
and does it conscientiously is by no means the
sinecure some people imagine. For, in addition to
destroying troublesome vermin of all kinds, he has
to circumvent the plans of men who often know
quite as much as himself. With the genuine poacher,

THE GENUINE POACHER.

169

who is well-versed in field-craft and matches his wits
squarely against those of the gamekeeper and the
wild creatures he desires to capture, I must frankly
confess to a great deal of sympathy, for he is often
impelled by the same instincts as the best sports-
man, whose privileges he lacks the enjoyment of,

PARTRIDGE ON NEST.

frequently by a mere accident of birth. I have
known such men personally, and in their characters
there was not any other moral kink whatsoever.
One such fell upon evil days mainly through the
ruin of his health by exposure, and was at last
compelled to pawn his trusty gun in a small pro-
vincial town. As it was not redeemed within the
allotted period of time it was placed in the window
for sale. The decrepit poacher happened to be
hobbling past one day on two sticks, and after

170 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

eyeing his old single-barrel wistfully for a few
moments the tears began to trickle down his
weather-beaten face, and he walked sorrowfully
away. But this is only one side of the picture.
In addition to thwarting the incursions of men who
go poaching in response to natural instincts, game-
keepers, especially near large industrial centres, have
to face gangs of despicably cowardly ruffians who
know next- to -nothing of the habits of the game
they go after, and are impelled by exactly the
same motives as would send them to house-
breaking.

As a result of various encounters with this class
of poacher, the gamekeeper whom I have just men-
tioned had his hands scarred from savage bites and
his temples disfigured by kicks from inhuman
brutes, besides carrying in his body more than
forty pellets of shot deliberately fired at him by
a dastard whom he was pressing too closely in a
fair open chase.

Partridges are very curious-tempered birds,
and will often forsake a nest full of eggs for no
other reason, apparently, than that it has been
discovered. By careful stalking, we secured the
picture on the preceding page of a partridge as
she sat on her eggs in a hedge bank, without
disturbing her.

The birds are poached in various ways, and in
most of them some well known natural habit is
turned to account in order to encompass their
destruction.

In the evening the mother of a covey calls her
chickens together to " jug " in a small circle with
their tails all turned inwards towards the centre.
The old male generally sleeps a little apart by
himself, and acts sentinel ; but in spite of his

PARTRIDGE GALL. 171

vigilance a couple of poachers will, with the
assistance of a long net, often kill his mate and
all their offspring. The net is dragged along
the ground with the top well forward, and
directly a covey attempts to rise it is dropped
over them and they are doomed. To prevent
this kind of destruction gamekeepers u bush "
the fields in August, and thus save their game.

PARTRIDGE.

(Photographed on the Westmorland Hills after a Storm.)

Partridges are, like Grouse, amenable to an arti-
ficially-produced call if their peculiar skirling cry
be successfully imitated. A Surrey farmer once told
me that he had in years gone by lain in the corner
of a field and lured lots of birds within shot by
means of a call made and used in the following
way : — He took an ordinary sewing - thimble, and
grinding the end away, tied a piece of parchment
over the hole so tightly as to render it resonant,
and making a pin-hole through the centre, threaded
it on to a piece of catgut or horsehair. By holding

172 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

one end of the catgut or horsehair between the
teeth and the other round the index finger of either
hand, he could by moving the thimble up and down
reproduce the call-note of a Partridge. In order
to prove the value of this information before making
use of it, I constructed a call for myself, and was
surprised by its effective strains.

Hares are, and probably always have been, much
sought after by poachers of all kinds. Only the
other day an old man, bent almost half -double with
age and carrying a hamperful of groundsel upon
his back, called at the back door of a house occu-
pied by a neighbour of mine, and when he found
he could not dispose of any of his ostensible stock-
in-trade he glanced round furtively, and then
promptly dived his hand through the groundsel
and pulled a splendid Hare forth by the leg and
offered her in a whisper for three - and - sixpence.
The old fellow had doubtless snared her as she
came through some favourite run in a hedgerow.

The commonest way of illicitly catching the
animal in the North of England is netting it by
night.

When a lad of seventeen I was very anxious to
know exactly how this was done, and accordingly
ingratiated myself into the confidence of a couple
of poachers, and accompanied them one night after
a heavy fall of snow on to some property which,
curiously enough, belonged to my paternal grand-
father. I think they were desirous of scaring me
at the offset ; for after telling all sorts of tales
about narrow escapes from keepers whom we all
knew quite well, they set me to watch a net
stretched across a field-gate leading into a lane. I
had stood waiting in fear and trembling for some
time, when a black figure quietly rounded a bend

NETTING HARES. 173

in the road and came swiftly towards me. The
consciousness of my guilt made me jump to the
conclusion that it was a keeper, and my heart started
thumping wildly against my waistcoat, as it was
impossible for me to run away ; and there were
special circumstances for making capture particularly
disgraceful. Without stirring a foot, I jerked the
net from the gate and instantly thrust it beneath
my waistcoat, and waited with as much composure
as I could summon. If ever piety had the upper
hand of wickedness it was at that moment, for the
dark figure turned out to be our minister going
home from a prayer meeting. The sound of his
soft " Good-night" relieved me beyond the telling;
but I fear I added all too readily to my sum total
of iniquity by asking him to tell an imaginary chum
along the road " to hurry up."

There could be no disputing that I had got a
thorough fright, but after a few weeks 1 had so
far got the better of it that I went out again on
the same quest. One of the poachers, who was a
keenly observant fellow, knew a meadow where a
Hare came off the hills to feed every night, and we
accordingly started about eight o'clock one evening
to try to catch her. When we arrived at the gate-
way by which she entered, a recently-fallen shower
of snow showed plainly that she was in the field.
A net was hung lightly across by means of a little
bob of sheep's wool thrust into the interstices of
the stone wall on either side. I remained crouched
down behind the fence with one of my companions,
whilst the other and a rough-haired cur went by a
circuitous route to the far side of the field.

In about ten minutes we heard a scuffling kind of
rush, and an instant afterwards the net flew off the
gateway in a great brown ball and rolled several

174 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

feet along the ground, and the still night air was
rent by the most piteous child-like skirling I ever
had the ill-fortune to hear. The noise was of short
duration, however, for the poacher with whom I
stood threw himself upon the Hare and net and
ended poor Pussy's squealing for ever. The dog

HARE-NET ON GATE.

never uttered a sound of any kind, and I only saw
it once as it peeped between the bars of the gate
through which the victim had come until we all
met behind an old barn in a lonely place half a
mile away.

Hares will often take a net set in this way
in broad daylight if they are hard pressed by a
swift dog, and the accompanying pictures, taken
by special arrangement with the man in them,
illustrate how the trick is done.

FRUSTRATING THE POACHERS. 175

I knew a cunning old gamekeeper in Yorkshire
who used to frustrate the efforts of people who
practised this kind of poaching by what he called
" mistetching " the Hares on his beat every autumn.
He netted as many of them as he could himself,
and then turned them loose again. The conse-

THE HARE CAUGHT.

quence was that a Hare- that had once struggled
within the meshes of a net would rarely go through
a gateway or sheep-creep (a hole in a stone wall
to let sheep through from one field to another)
unless absolutely forced to do so by an exceedingly
swift dog. I have seen a Hare which this man had
had in a net leap a stone fence quite six feet high.
She bounded on to it sideways, and then leapt
quietly down on the other side.

These animals have a peculiar habit which they

176 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

always practise just before going on to their forms.
It looks like a reasoned action deliberately executed
to mislead prowling enemies that track them by
the scent left in their footprints. It consists of
travelling almost straight for a given distance, and
then doubling back right along their own path
again thirty or forty yards, suddenly leaving it
altogether by a tremendous side-bound, and going
away at right angles to their original path for some
distance before retiring to rest. This curious per-
formance is generally gone through only once. How-
ever, I have known it repeated two or three times
before a fastidious animal had become satisfied with
its daylight quarters.

When snow lies thick upon the ground and the
wind has drifted it, Hares often make their forms
in a peculiar manner. It is called in the North
of England "coaving" (undoubtedly a corruption
of caving), and consists of driving a tunnel almost
through a sloping drift of snow and then sitting
all day at the end of it.

Many snowdrifts do not touch the wall they
are driven against, and there is frequently room
for a man to walk in comfort between them.

I once saw a Hare in a burrow of this kind,
and she had made a small hole as big as a man's
waistcoat button through the front of the drift, and
had one eye fixed close up against it. Poachers
sometimes succeed in throwing a net over the poor
creatures as they sit in these snow burrows.

Occasionally Hares are shot on bright moonlight
nights as they feed upon the snow ; and I knew
one old poacher who, though in easy circumstances,
had the spirit of the thing so strongly in his blood
that, even when bent double with rheumatism, he
would leave the warm fireside of his farmhouse,

POACHING FARMERS. 177

and induce one of the men-servants to carry his
gun for him whilst he hobbled painfully along on
two sticks. As soon as the old fellow got a shot
his younger companion used to bolt with the dead
Hare and gun at the top of his speed, and leave his
employer to crawl home at his leisure and without
sign of guilt. This was, of course, before the Ground
Game Act placed Hares in the hands of farmers.

I recollect another old farmer whose greed rather
than original instincts prompted him to set steel
gins in watercourse-holes, through stone walls, on
his farm for the Hares that used them ; but he had
the spirit of his enterprise broken by a good-natured
keeper who, after playing off all sorts of tricks on
the old fellow, ridiculed him into good behaviour
by hacking off a dead Sheep's leg and putting it
into one of his traps in such a way as to suggest
that the animal had been caught and had torn
it off.

A Hare's love of parsley is well known by most
rural folks, and I remember a quarryman who turned
to account this knowledge and a bit of the herb
growing in his back garden which abutted on some
good game ground.

I believe it is a popular belief that Rabbits do
not leave their nesting burrows open during the day-
time until their young ones, which are born blind
and remain so for eight or nine days, can see,
and that if they are touched by human hands
before they have acquired the sense of sight the
mother will forsake them. We have proved both
these canons of rural natural history to have, at
any rate, their exceptions.

In order to give some idea of the effectual manner
in which a Rabbit can hide the whereabouts of its
nest, we made a photograph of part of a hedge-
M

RABBIT BURROW (CLOSED)

RABBIT BURROW (OPEN)-

180 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

bank with one in it before the mouth of the burrow
had been opened, and another after the owner had
scratched the earth away.

Rabbits open their nesting burrows and suckle
their young by night, closing them tightly with earth
again when they leave them. I had a nest under
close observation last spring, and was much interested
to find that its owner scattered some old hay from a
sheep foddering station close by over the mould with
which she filled the entrance to the burrow every
time she left it, a procedure which materially lessened
its chances of being discovered.

When the small amount of earth lying patted
down flat outside a Rabbit's nest, and the length
and diameter of the burrow from which it has been
excavated are compared, it always appears to me
as if the owner must have taken some of the mould
right away so as to lessen the conspicuousness of
things, but I have not been able to gather any
corroborative facts on this point.

During the early spring great numbers of young
Rabbits are drowned in their nests through heavy
rainfalls. Accidents of this kind no doubt contri-
bute largely to keeping their numbers in this country
in check, for such is the remarkable fecundity of
the animal that it has been calculated a pair
would, under the most favourable circumstances
possible, produce not less than 1,274,840 in the
short space of four years.

I have proved that they will increase the
length of their nesting burrows after young
ones have been born, if an injury to the thin crust
of earth immediately over them should appear to
jeopardise their safety. A friend of mine, on whose
farm a number of Rabbits breed every year, cut
the sod immediately over the nest of one away in

SNARING RABBITS. 181

the spring of 1896 in order to show its downy little
occupants to his wife. I visited the place a week
later, and upon examination discovered that the
burrow had been dug quite six inches further in,
and most of the nest and young ones transferred
to the new quarters. There was also a quantity
of newly-excavated earth outside the mouth of the
burrow. As the land in which the nest was situated
was very wet, probably a leakage caused through
the cutting of the sod directly over the young ones
induced their mother to shift their quarters.

Rabbits are killed by poachers in various ways,
most of which are well known to everybody. The
animal's habit of using a fixed path in journeying
between its burrow and feeding ground renders it
liable to being caught in a snare during the night ;
and although some poachers are punctilious in regard
to the suitability of an evening for putting snares
down, I have seen a Rabbit run leisurely into one
in broad daylight.

I was walking quietly alongside a wood in the
neighbourhood of Enfield one bright Sunday after-
noon last year, when I observed three Rabbits
run down the field I was in towards the hedge
dividing it from a wood. When within eight or
ten yards of their goal, I noticed one of them
suddenly turn a somersault. I was somewhat sur-
prised to see him stay and repeat this gymnastic
performance after his companions had disappeared
through the hedge. He continued to tumble head
over heels until I got close up to him, when I dis-
covered that he was in a snare. Although in very
good condition both his ears were a black swarming
mass of fleas.

I do not think it is at all generally known that
Rabbits will sometimes turn and bite their captors.

182

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

I was once severely bitten by one when a boy,
and was greatly afraid I should die from hydro-
phobia in consequence, until I discovered by
diligent inquiry that it was an accident which occa-
sionally fell to the lot of gamekeepers and poachers.

RABBITS AT PLAY.

I also learned something of a still rarer accident
which sometimes befalls an unlucky Ferret. If one
be turned into a burrow, and finding a Rabbit fails
to bolt it, a second is generally sent along to help
him. Instead, however, of exerting their combined
efforts to accomplish this, they probably, through
jealousy, fall upon each other and one of them is
generally dug out dead.

CHAPTER V.

NESTS, EGGS, AND YOUNG.

"jl/TANY people imagine that birds build their
•**•*• nests exactly alike, according to an urideviat-
ing pattern rigidly fixed for the instinctive guidance
of each species ; but such is certainly not the case,
although it is truly wonderful how closely the
different members of a species adhere to a general
type of architecture.

The fact is, I believe, that birds, like human
beings, possess individually varying degrees of in-
telligence, skill, and energy, and that differences
in any of these qualities are to the close observer
plainly marked in the constructive character of their
work. Chaffinches, as a rule, build exceedingly
neat, cup -shaped nests, as everybody knows, but
not infrequently quite a slovenly structure, for the
species, may be met with. Sometimes they are
composed of green moss and lined with horse-hair
only, at others the outside is liberally studded with
bits of lichen and curtained with cobwebs, and the
inside lined with horse -hair, cow -hair, rabbits'
down, and feathers. It is said that bits of lichen
are used on the outer walls of the nest to give it
a general resemblance to the bark of the branches
surrounding it, and although I must admit that in
many cases the idea of harmonisation appears to
underlie the ornamentation, it is certainly not

184 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

always the. case, as some years ago I met with one
the builder of which had thickly studded its outer
walls with bits of an old newspaper, in such a
situation that the journalistic decorations really
increased rather than lessened its chances of dis-
covery.

That individuals of a certain species begin to
nest almost simultaneously in a given district I
proved last spring, by finding thirteen Chaffinches'
nests in various stages of construction on the 24th
and 25th of April. On the other hand, some early
pairs of Starlings had young ones hatched out
before the last few dozen members of their winter
flocks had fairly broken up.

Odd as it may seem at first sight, birds occa-
sionally lose their lives by remarkable accidents
which happen to them whilst engaged in the build-
ing of their nests. During a ramble one evening
last spring, I came upon a female Chaffinch sus-
pended by a strong horse hair within two or three
feet of her almost completed nest. A hard baked
worm- casting had cemented itself to one end of
the hair, which had in consequence become twisted
round a twig, and the opposite end so entangled
about the unfortunate bird's neck as to form a
running noose, and strangle it by its own efforts to
escape. It was a most pathetic picture, and as my
brother made a photograph of it, the poor bird's
mate kept on calling for her and flying round in
the most evident distress.

A Common Wren will build the outside of its nest
of old hay straws when placing it in the side of a
rick — as shown in our illustration on page 187, which
my brother was lucky enough to secure just as the
owner was about to enter — of green moss when
situated in a mossy bank, and of dead leaves when

HEN CHAFFINCH HANGED BY A HAIR.

186 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

in a hedgerow; bramble bush, or amongst a few
slender twigs sprouting from the trunk of a tree
where a branch has been lopped off. I have met
with several in the last two positions in woods, and
I must admit that they very nearly escaped minute
examination on account of their close resemblance
to an accidental collection of leaves. These facts
would, on the face of them, appear to prove that
the bird in each case deliberately chose the mate-
rials for the outer walls of its nest in order that
they should harmonise with their surroundings and
materially lessen the chances of detection — an end
which is undoubtedly attained, but whether by
accident or design it is difficult to say. I am in-
clined to think the former, because I believe that
birds, as a rule, build their nests with such suitable
materials as lie handiest, although I remember an
instance of a Wren flying over a quarter of a mile
for the feathers with which she lined her little
house. I was able to prove this, because those
used were all off a particularly light- coloured hen
Grouse, the skeleton and remaining feathers of
which I shortly afterwards found.

Wrens build what are popularly known as
"cock's nests/' which are in every way equal to
those in which eggs are laid and young ones
reared, except for the fact that they do not contain
a lining of feathers. These nests, I should say
from my own experience, number quite three to
one of those made for breeding purposes. Some
ornithologists are of opinion that they are made to
sleep in, but although I have met with members of
the Tit family comfortably tucked away in them
at night-time, I have never come across one occu-
pied by a member of the species which built it.

Water-hens generally build two or three spare

WREN GOING INTO HER NEST IN RICK.

188 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

nests, of slighter construction than the one they
actually occupy, round a pond, and Plovers often
scratch out and prepare little hollows in which they
never lay their eggs.

Some Sand Martins lay their eggs upon quite an
elaborate bed of straws and feathers, whilst others
in the same bank deposit theirs upon the scantiest
lining of straws only. Individual nests belonging
to birds of the same species vary considerably in
point of size without any reference whatever to
the character of the situation occupied, as the most
casual glance at a number of House Martins' nests
will prove.

In regard to hiding their nests, individual birds
differ greatly. Last spring my brother and I
found a Blackbird's in a hedge merely by the
fact that the bird in building it had carelessly left
a conspicuous trail of the materials she had used
from the outside of the bush right up to the very
nest. A schoolboy would have detected it through
this slovenly piece of workmanship quite thirty
yards away, as was doubtless the case, for the
eggs did not remain long in it. On the other
hand, within a hundred yards of it, I found the
most cunningly-hidden Blackbird's nest that I have
ever seen. I was looking round a friend's garden,
when I came upon an old black horse's tail which
had been thrown into a yew tree and lodged near
the trunk, and about five feet from the ground.
The thing looked curious, and, with an idea of
examining it more closely, I seized the lower end
and gave it a tug. To my surprise, a hen Black-
bird fluttered out in great alarm, and I discovered
that she had a nest and eggs on a branch close to
the bole of the tree and quite behind the horse's
tail, which, whilst forming a kind of curtain (it

SPARROWS STEALING NESTS. 18'J

was somewhat spread out) through which she could
see, hid her and her nest most effectually from
view.

I fear that, from an ethical point of view, the
actions of many birds during the breeding season
would not present a very edifying spectacle. I
have seen a stable with upwards of forty Martins'
nests under its eaves, half of which were occupied
by Sparrows. Many of them were, of course, old
ones, which had been confiscated between the de-
parture and return of their rightful owners, but
others had been forcibly occupied directly they
were built. Indeed, I have witnessed a pair of
Sparrows steal a Martin's nest before the outer
wall of mud had actually been completed. If
they happen to find eggs in a nest they have
decided to raid they eject them, and I strongly
suspect the young too, from the unfeathered little
creatures I have found dead upon the ground
directly beneath their nests. That Sparrows will
also endeavour to steal each other's nests we have
satisfactorily proved. Last spring my brother
fixed a small box up against a brick wall just out-
side his bedroom window, in order that, with his
camera hidden behind the curtains, he might make
some photographic studies of the old birds feeding
their young. During May a pair of birds took
possession of the quarters prepared for their accom-
modation, and in due time a cosy nest containing
five speckled eggs was the result. All went well
until another pair of birds of the same species cast
envious eyes upon the little wooden box with a
neat round hole in front. One morning a fierce
battle was the result, and when it was over, and
the prodigious din had subsided, two broken eggs
lay upon the window sill, a third on the garden

190 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

path, and of the two remaining in the nest, which
was sadly torn about and dishevelled, one had a
great hole pierced in its side.

Sparrows, in their turn, suffer from the dis-
honesty of Starlings, by which they are sometimes
robbed of cosy holes they have taken much pains
to make in the sides of hayricks. I once saw a
Starling eject a pair of Sparrows from their nest
in one of the divisions of a barrel -shaped pigeon-
cote erected on the top of a pole. It was quite
comical to see the usurper stand defiantly in the
doorway of the house she had taken possession of,
whilst the rightful owners talked loudly at a safe
distance from her beak, or fluttered round without
getting help or heed from a dozen neighbours
sharing the same cote. When the Starling flew
out, the ejected tenants hotly pursued her in a
make-believe attempt at administering some whole-
some chastisement, but she took not the slightest
notice of their threats, and returned again uncon-
cernedly at her leisure.

A pair of Starlings took possession of a Sparrow's
nest built in a rose tree trained against the wall of
a farmhouse near Shenley, in Hertfordshire, last
spring, and reared their young in it.

A year or two ago, whilst my brother was
trying to photograph a Song Thrush in the act of
feeding her young in Mull, he was astonished to see
a Wren hop up and boldly pull a piece of moss out
of the side of the Thrush's nest and fly off with it.

I have watched Rooks steal sticks from each
other's nests on several occasions, and once saw
one endeavour to pilfer twigs from a Heron's nest
close by her own, and receive a measure of well-
deserved punishment for her dishonesty from the
infuriated owner.

KESTREL'S EGGS IN A RAVEN'S OLD NEST

192 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

Whilst some birds are guilty of theft, others
occasionally exhibit quite extravagant habits in re-
gard to the materials with which they are building
their nests ; and I have often located the precise
position of a Swallow's nest amongst the rafters of
a high barn by a collection of feathers dropped, I
have no doubt accidentally, to the floor. Ring-
Ouzels, Blackbirds, and Song Thrushes occasionally
drop quite a quantity of materials to the ground
beneath their nests, but do not appear to trouble
about picking them up again. In the course of my
ornithological experiences I have known one or two
cases of birds trying to build in impossible situa-
tions, and having their best efforts defied by the
materials toppling over as soon as piled a certain
height. I remember a place close beside a waterfall
in a little Yorkshire ghyll where a Blackbird or Song
Thrush attempts in vain nearly every year to build
on an ideal but, unfortunately, all too narrow ledge
of rock.

Occasionally a bird will build a new nest on the
top of an old one belonging to the same species,
and I have known this done even when the old
one contained addled eggs. I once saw an old
Thrush's nest which had been lined with fine grass
and utilised by a none too industrious Blackbird.
We have met with several disused nests belonging
to the two last-named birds occupied by Harvest
Mice, which had filled up the hollows in each with
their own pretty little balls of grass.

Kestrel Hawks are extremely lazy birds when
judged from a domestic point of view. They adopt
the old nests of Ravens, Carrion Crows, Magpies,
and Sparrow Hawks, soon foul them with their
castings, and, when their young ones are hatched
out, do not even trouble to remove the shells from

OYSTER-CATCHERS' NESTS. 193

which the tiny down-clad creatures have struggled.
The illustration on p. 191 shows a Kestrel's eggs in
a Raven's old nest which had been half toppled over
by a heavy fall of snow the previous winter. Before
laying her eggs, the adapter had scratched the side
of the structure out a little so as to create a hollow.
We have met with several Oyster -catchers'

OYSTER-CATCHER'S NEST.

nests, consisting of hollows scratched in nice dry,
soft earth, and lined — or, more strictly speaking,
paved — with empty winkle and other small shells
picked up on the beach below, and in one case, in
the South of Ireland, with one inlaid entirely with
sun-dried rabbits' droppings.

Last spring my brother, whilst staying with a
friend at his country house in Norfolk, was shown
a hole in a hollow tree through which a pair of
Jackdaws and innumerable Honey Bees were con-
stantly travelling to and from their respective nests

N

194 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

in the utmost peace and harmony. The birds went
down the trunk and the bees up it.

Birds of entirely different species sometimes
share the same nest, and yet live and go about
their business in perfect amity.

A few years ago I watched a pair of Rooks
and a pair of House Sparrows, close to the Priory
Road, Hornsey, feeding their young at the same
time and at the same nest. The latter birds occu-
pied the basement, having taken up their quarters
amongst the sticks forming the foundation of the
Rooks' nest.

In 1895 a pair of Starlings made their home and
successfully reared their young amongst the sticks
forming the Ospreys' eyrie shown in our illustration.

The picture was obtained in the Highlands of
Scotland during a scorching hot day in the
droughty summer of 1896, and represents the nest
and adult birds of one of the two or three pairs of
Ospreys now said to breed in the British Isles.

Whilst my brother was preparing to make a
study of the eyrie and its builders perched on the
dead tree tops from an adjoining island, the female,
as if afraid the hot sunshine would do some harm
to her exposed eggs, plunged headlong into the
loch, and, rising, shook her dripping wings over
them, after which she quietly resumed her favourite
perch.

As a gratifying indication of the increasing
interest taken in natural history by the people at
large, hardly a week passes in the springtime with-
out the newspapers recording a curious nesting-
place chosen by some bird. Robin Redbreasts
naturally come in for a large share of journalistic
attention, and I am constantly having cuttings sent
me by friends who know I study the subject.

196 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

Indeed, the same paragraph will often come from
different quarters at the same time.

We have ourselves met with a Robin's nest in
an old coffee-pot tossed by some careless hand
into a garden hedge, in an old watering-can lying
upon its side on a rubbish heap, in the hub of a
cart-wheel leaning against a wall, and amongst the
woodwork beneath a tumbril standing in a shed,
and give herewith a combination page of photo-
graphs of them as objects of curiosity. It is grati-
fying to be able to state that in each case the
parent birds succeeded in rearing and carrying off
their young ones in safety. Strangely enough, a
Pied Wagtail had also built her nest in the frame-
work of the tumbril above mentioned, on the same
side as the Robin, but below the axletree. Both
birds had taken advantage of an extra piece of
timber which had been nailed on to strengthen the
framework of the vehicle.

We have seen the nests of various members of
the Tit family inside letter-boxes, street lamps, dis-
used pumps, and even within the narrow limits
afforded by the interior of the knife-box of a
mowing machine.

A gentleman, who was going abroad big game
shooting some years ago, like a prudent sportsman,
tested the capabilities of his elephant gun and its
explosive bullets on a brick garden wall prior to
starting. The following spring a Spotted Fly-
catcher discovered that the penetrative force and
destructive powers of one of the little projectiles
had been sufficient to create an eligible site for a
small bird's nest, and promptly built her own in
the hole made by it.

The unwearying patience and devotion of birds
whilst engaged in sitting upon their eggs or tending

ROBINS' NESTS IN ODD SITUATIONS.

108

\\ITII NAT\llil<: AM> .1

llirir young has often si ruck me as being really
wonderful. 1 have passed sonic several limes 21 day
for days together, :IIK| found them silling on every
occasion in exactly the same positions. However,
such is by no means always ihe case, as birds
nesting in fairly open sil nations I'mpient ly alter

their positions^a fact duo, no doubt, in many cases

KLYCATOHM'i NEST IN BULLIT-HOLI.

to the shifting of the wind, as they dislike to sit

with their tails to it.

The presence of sitting n;amc birds may always
be known by the increased si/e of their droppings
around |>laces where they ^o to drink. I h:i.V(»
known a Red Grouse sit so long and closely on a
clutch of addled eggs that she became almost too

weak to lly.

Some birds may bo caught on their nests even

when in <piile <>pni sil nations, and handled with-
out beino- made to forsake. Last spring my
brother and 1 mot with a very curious case of a

,S7 '/"/'/ AW (JMWN.

Chaffinch which did not object, to being caught on
her nest by a, boy, yet would not allow us to pholo
graph her. We tried morning, noon, and night, in
vain. I have known a bird of this species have every
feather in her tail pulled out, whilst sitting on her
eggs, by a mischievous
lad who tried to catch
her, and yet bring olV
her young.

Her nest was so in-
securely allixed against
the trunk of a. lingo tree
that it, began to topple
over directly she com-
menced to sit, and would
undoubtedly have fallen
had not my brother
fastened it up by driv-
ing a, pin or two through
its side into the bark of
the tree.

I remember a, case of
a, Tree ( Yeeper being
caught on her nest,, situ-
ated behind a piece of
loose bark hanging to
the trunk of a light-
ning-struck elm, and convoyed half a mil*'
a man's jacket pocket in order that she m
be shown to a little sick boy who took an intelli-
gent interest, in birds. Upon being returned, she
resumed her duties towards her young as if nothing
whatever had happened. Wo afterwards photo-
graphed one of her young ones a,s it, left, the nont
and begun to climb up the bark of the tree in
which it had been bred.

HIM 01(11 l-l M

n

200 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

Bullfinches sit very closely, as may be judged
from the vignette on the opposite page, which has
been made direct from the original photograph.
Gray Wagtails are also faithful birds in this respect.
In the beginning of June, 1895, I found the nest
of one of these birds in a little ghyll in Westmor-
land, and an illustration of it appeared in my work
on "British Birds' Nests." At the end of the
same month of the present year we revisited the
place, and found the old nest of 1895 still intact,
one which had been used in 1896 a yard or two
higher up the stream, and a new one, upon which
the bird was then sitting, a few feet higher still.
The nest was too far back in a dark horizontal
fissure in the limestone rock to allow us to photo-
graph the bird on it, so we put her off, and, drawing
it a few inches out, went away. As she did not
appear to resent our interference with her nest, we
pulled it a bit further out still the next day, and
on the third reflected sufficient light upon her by
the aid of a looking-glass to enable the accompany-
ing picture to be made. This done, we put it back
in its original position, and the Wagtail ultimately
hatched her eggs and reared five young ones.

Early in the morning of the day on which the
Queen celebrated her Diamond Jubilee we started
out to photograph a Red-backed Shrike sitting on
her nest. She was much shyer than we anticipated,
but after a patient wait of four and a half hours we
succeeded in making the study on p. 203 by hiding
the camera and photographer, and signalling to the
latter by a low whistle when the bird was seen,
with a field-glass, to go to her nest. It is of
interest to us from the fact that the photograph
was taken just as her Majesty left Buckingham
Palace on her historic procession.

BULLFINCH ON NEST.

GRAY WAGTAIL ON NEST.

202 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

The male birds of many species feed their
mates whilst they are engaged in brooding. I
remember hiding up one evening with a Yorkshire
gamekeeper in a small wood for a cock Sparrow-
hawk which he said would be sure to come and
feed the hen sitting on her nest close by. We
located ourselves amongst some stunted birch trees
in a place well above the nest, and commanding a
good view of nearly every winged approach to it,
and waited. In a while a very curious looking
object came sailing down the ghyll just above the
tree tops; there was a loud bang, and it literally
came apart, one half falling obliquely with a thud
to the ground, and the other disappearing, as if by
magic, round the shoulder of a small hill. I picked
up the portion which we had seen fall, and it
proved to be a young Peewit plucked almost bare,
and still warm. The sound of the keeper's un-
successful shot put the hen off her nest. We
waited until she returned, however, to receive what
my companion considered a fatal wound, but,
although badly hurt, the bird was actually sitting
upon her nest next day, and when killed the
devoted creature had dried blood running the full
length of her tail and wing quills.

Cock Robins feed the hens assiduously whilst
they are sitting, and in return for their care receive
a low twitter of thanks.

Most people are aware of the fact that in nearly
all clutches of House and Tree Sparrows' eggs one
differs widely from the rest in regard to the
character of its markings.

Last spring I succeeded in finding and identify-
ing by the black patch on the chin and throat of
the female a nest belonging to the latter species. It
was situated in a hole in a pollard willow, and when

aim K

m

CLUTCH OF TREE SPARROW'S EGGS.

SHRIKE ON NEST.

204 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

I first discovered it contained only one egg — the one
with the large blotches upon it in the illustration of a
clutch of Tree Sparrow's eggs on the preceding page.
I visited the nest again exactly a week later, and
was surprised to find that it had six more eggs in it,
all very similar to each other, but differing widely
from the first one laid. My observations proved
that in this case, at any rate, the egg, unlike the
rest of those in the clutch in the character of its
markings, was laid first, and that the species can
upon occasion lay at least one more egg than it
has been given credit for even by our greatest
authorities on British ornithology, who place the
outside limit of a clutch of Tree Sparrow's eggs at
six in number.

It is surprising how much is expected of a man
who takes an interest in birds and their eggs by
people who know little or nothing of the subject
themselves. They will ask him to identify all sorts
of eggs with certainty without a scrap of evidence
on their part saving the empty shell, and even go
so far as to paint white eggs with all kinds of
colours. A wag once sent me a small domestic
fowl's egg, very cleverly marked with by no means
unreasonable colours, and a request that I should
identify it for him. I promptly replied that it was
a common Humbug's egg from Bamboozle-' em-land.

Although birds' eggs, as a rule, follow pretty
closely the common type of their species in regard
to coloration and markings, extraordinary depar-
tures are sometimes met with, and I believe that
such variations are generally due to the indifferent
health of their layers. I have once or twice met
with common Wrens' eggs without markings of any
sort, and some years ago took a clutch of pure
white eggs from a House Sparrow's nest. I have

ABNORMAL EGGS. 205

also seen a Chaffinch's nest containing five pale
greenish-blue unmarked eggs. I found a Black-
bird's nest in the spring of 1896 containing four
small greenish-grey unspotted eggs, the shells of
which were rough and granulated.

Some birds lay their eggs straight off, one

COAL TIT.

every day, and then commence to sit, whilst others,
probably influenced by the character of the weather,
lay irregularly, missing a day or two as they pro-
ceed. I have endeavoured to make a series of sys-
tematic observations on this point, but accidents
and lack of time to carry them out properly have
rendered my figures unworthy of tabulation.

What puzzles me in regard to some birds is that
they build in such cramped situations and lay so

206 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

many eggs that they cannot possibly cover them
all except two deep, and yet those in the bottom
layer receive a sufficient amount of heat to incu-
bate them. I have seen Coal Tif's' eggs disposed in
this way, and the bottom row had each worked
themselves such deep indentations in the materials
with which the nest was composed as to be half
buried. I have also seen a Moor hen's nest with
nine eggs in it, some of which were piled upon the
others. Of course, it may be said that a sitting
bird turns her eggs over daily, but even then one
would think that the variable amount of heat
generated around them must be detrimental to the
embryo chick. In the case of the Coal Tit just
mentioned, I very much question whether they were
turned over at all, because such an action would
have prevented the great amount of embedment of
the eggs in the materials of which the bottom of the
nest was formed.

Members of the Plover family greatly dislike
their eggs to lie any way except with their points
to the centre of the nest, and, when a boy, I used
to alter the disposition of the eggs of Peewits and
Golden Plovers in order to see how quickly they
would set them to rights again.

According to my experience, birds are not
nearly so particular about their nests and eggs as
is popularly supposed. I recollect once examining
a Dipper's nest, situated in a horizontal cleft of
rock, and containing four eggs, which were centred
round a sharp piece of stone projecting right
through its bottom. I have also seen a Chaffinch's
nest with a piece of blackthorn showing through it,
although it was quite finished and contained eggs.

Starlings frequently drop their eggs about in the
fields. Pheasants, Partridges, Grouse, Eider Ducks,

THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE. 207

Wrens, and Tits, there is every reason to believe,
occasionally lay their eggs in the nests of other
birds of their own species, and, in the case of the
first-named two, I have found them mixed together
in the same nest.

With a view to testing how far certain birds
will tolerate the eggs of others of a different species
in their nests, I commenced a series of experiments
last spring in the neighbourhood of Elstree. I dis-
covered that a Thrush will take no notice whatever
of the introduction of a Blackbird's egg to her nest,
and that the latter bird is equally indifferent to an
exchange with her lighter-coloured neighbour. I in-
tended to endeavour to carry out the exchange to
entire clutches, but, unfortunately, my experiments
were all ruined by Carrion Crows and mischievous
boys, of which we can boast a goodly number in
our particular corner of Hertfordshire.

As some indication of the great struggle for
existence going on amongst birds, I have, from
close observation and a pretty extensive experience,
little hesitation in saying that I do not believe that
one-third of the eggs laid by British wild birds,
preserved and otherwise, ever produce in any
single season chicks which have the good fortune
to grow to adults. Egg collectors, schoolboys, and
savage destroyers who despoil for the mere love of
annihilating the beautiful ; table and manufacturing
requirements ; bird-catchers who take clutches of
young song-birds; Eagles, Falcons, Hawks, Owls,
Ravens, Crows, Eooks, Magpies, Jays, and Gulls;
foxes, dogs, cats, rats, stoats, weasels, and snakes ;
bad weather and accidents — all claim a tithe either
of sitting hens, eggs, or young birds.

Some birds' eggs and young have to trust for
protection entirely to their close harmonisation with

208 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

surrounding objects, and this they often do with
the most remarkable success. I remember a case of
a dozen people wandering all over quite a small
patch of sand and shingle in search of sea-shells,
and yet missing a Ringed Plover's eggs, which, by
a miracle, also escaped the much more likely
calamity of being trodden upon. I visited the
place a few days afterwards, when the young birds
had been hatched, and, although I made a systematic
search for them, three in number, I failed entirely
to discover a single bird. I accordingly retired to
a roofless shed sixty yards distant, and well above
the little spit of sand and shingle, which I kept
under close observation through my field-glasses.
In about ten minutes the female ran down from
a ridge of rocks, and standing head to wind began
to call in sweet low notes. Presently a little grey
tuft of down ran swiftly up to her, and disappeared
beneath her right wing, and was instantly followed
by another which came from an opposite direction,
and sought cover by ducking its head and going
beneath her puffed out breast feathers. A third
darted up, but did not immediately take shelter,
although his mother continued to call for him. He
dallied for a while in examination of a small pool
of water, which was thickly coated with bright
green weed and slime, and after picking up, or
pretending to do so, one or two morsels of food
in the most business-like fashion, retired beneath his
mother's sheltering wing, and she ceased to call.

After a while I dashed down upon them at my
utmost speed. The old bird ran straight away
for fifteen yards or so, and then began to tumble
about and practise her decoying antics. The young
ones took their departure each in an opposite
direction, and by the time I reached the spot

YOUNG RINGED PLOVER ON SHINGLE.

YOUNG RINGED PLOVER ON BLACK CLOTH.

210 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

there was not the slightest sign of one of them.
Eventually, however, I discovered all three, and upon
measuring, found that the one which had travelled
farthest away from the place where its mother
crouched had run six yards before clapping down
to hide. In order to show the wonderful way in
which these little creatures harmonise with their
surroundings, and thus escape detection, I got my
brother to photograph one of them exactly where
it crouched, and then folding a black focussing cloth
up I placed it beneath the chick, and had another
study made. By this means, I think, we have suc-
ceeded in illustrating with some degree of clearness
the value of protective coloration, so far as the
limitations of black and white will allow.

Young Curlews, Golden Plovers, Peewits, and
Sandpipers, all run about directly they leave the
shell; indeed, sometimes actually before they have
accomplished their deliverance. I have on more
than one occasion seen a baby Peewit wandering
about with half of its prison house still attached
to its downy rump ; and if a hawk or other bird of
prey should happen to appear overhead, they in-
stinctively clap flat upon the ground, and remain
motionless as stones until the danger has passed.
In order to illustrate the benefits of keeping
absolutely still and trusting for safety to the pro-
tective coloration of its upper parts, I sought
systematically for a young Curlew last summer on
the Westmorland hills, and when I found it half
hidden in a tuft of withered grass, I got my brother
to make a photograph of it exactly where it lay,
and then mother of the long-legged creature
standing on the muddy shores of .a half-silted-up
cattle pond. As soon as the second picture had
been taken, the bird deliberately walked into the

212 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

water, swam straight across, and upon regaining
the opposite bank, ran away swiftly up a steep
hillside.

I have often been astonished at the great dis-
tance at which Curlews can be heard calling, but
never had any notion of the immense power of their
vocal organs until the day I caught the one figured
overleaf. I was sitting beneath a stone wall with
the bird on my lap waiting until my brother re-
charged some photographic slides, when its mother
flew close overhead, uttering her familiar call-note,
which her offspring instantly answered in a loud,
harsh, ear-splitting cry of the most unmusical
character I have ever heard.

Young Peewits have a peculiar habit when
caught and released of stooping gracefully every
few yards they run away, and making what appears
to be a very pretty curtsey in return for their deliver-
ance. Similar antics are practised by adult birds
of this species pretending, when under observation,
of which they are conscious, to pick up bits of food
where there is every reason for believing none
really exists.

I know of no prettier sight than that afforded
by watching at close quarters a pair of shy birds
feeding their young without the slightest suspicion
of being under observation. They do their work
then with an easy deliberation and linger over the
nest and its precious contents with a thousand signs
of parental pride and deep natural affection.

On Good Friday, 1897, I found a Blackbird's
nest, containing three young ones, situated in a very
thin open hedgerow running parallel with the outer
wall of an old wooden cart- shed some four feet away.
I marked a place directly opposite and on a level
with it, and going inside the structure, cut a circular

YOUNG BLACKBIRDS.

213

hole with my pocket-knife in one of the boards for
the admission of the lens of my brother's camera,
and a smaller one a few inches above it for
purposes of observation.

When we had got everything ready to take a

• <"*.>#'• •:•**

YOUNQ PEEWIT.

photograph, we had not long to wait before the
female turned up with her bill full of medium -sized
worms. She alighted on a branch about a yard
away from the nest, and after listening intently for
a few seconds with her head cocked on one side,
hopped up. She had no sooner arrived on the
edge of her nest than each downy little head
popped up with the suddenness of a jack in the
box, and each richly coloured mouth opened to its

214 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

uttermost extent to receive an equal share of the
food the parent bird had brought.

Directly this was consumed they all subsided,
and the old bird attended to the sanitary arrange-
ments of her household, and then flew away in
search of more food.

Presently the cock came along with a large
worm which he had carefully chopped into several
pieces ready for impartial distribution amongst his
promising offspring. He, too, seemed to regard
cleanliness with a scrupulous eye, and after doing
his share of the necessary work, he retired to a
neighbouring elm tree and piped a few mellow
notes.

When the hen returned again a heavy shower
of rain was falling, and after she had distributed
her harvest of worms she hopped into the nest, and
hustling about a while with gentle care for the
chicks beneath her, settled down with her wings
spread over the sides of her nest to allow the rain
drops to run off, and the happiest look of security
and contentment about her I ever saw in any bird
in my life. Her head, back, wings, and tail were
covered with great crystal beads of water, which
rolled down and away like quicksilver in obedience
to the laws of gravitation directly they received
the weight of an additional drop of rain. We
managed, in spite of a very poor light, to make a
photograph of her in this condition, as shown in
the bottom left-hand corner of the combination page
of illustrations.

When the shower was over the cock came along
with a fresh supply of food, and the hen imme-
diately hopped off and stood on the edge of the
nest and watched him feed the young ones. It
was a sweetly pretty picture, and my brother has

BLACKBIRDS AT HOME.

216 WITS NATURE AND A CAMERA.

regretted ever since the unfortunate circumstance
that he was changing his slides at the moment. He
waited nearly the whole of Easter Sunday and
Monday for a similar scene, but it never presented
itself. The hen fed the young birds twice for the
cock once. Indeed, the latter often came to gaze
in admiration at his chicks, and showed every signs
of the fond pride of an affectionate father.

I believe I am in a position to boast what very
few ornithologists can. I have helped birds to
build their nests, hatch their eggs, and feed their
young. When a boy I used to collect feathers
and amuse myself by dropping them from the top
of a bridge and watching the Swallows and Martins
catch and carry them away for use in lining their
nests. I have kept birds' eggs warm in my hands
during the enforced absence of the sitting hen, and
have placed suitable food beside birds' nests and
watched them pick it up and give it to their young
ones.

Even where a great amount of hard work is
entailed in feeding a hungry brood of young ones,
some female birds do not receive any assistance
from the males. At the end of last May I found a
Oh iff chaff's nest, containing five young ones, at the
foot of a tiny thorn bush growing in an old copse
near my home. I kept it under close observation
a whole day, and made quite sure that the male
bird did not render the slightest assistance, although
the female worked almost incessantly from morning
till night. I was able to identify her with cer-
tainty from the fact that one of her under tail
coverts had by some accident become bent upwards,
and projected between the quills on the upper side
of her tail. I timed her upon my watch on several
occasions, both during the forenoon and afternoon,

CHIFFCHAFF FEEDING HER YOUNG.

218

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

and found that upon an average she brought cater-
pillars and flies four times in five minutes, and on
the occasion of each visit spent from ten to fifteen
seconds in attending to the sanitary arrangements
of her little establishment. Most birds

are verv

NIGHTINGALE ON NEST.

particular about this part of their duties, and I have
known a Robin refuse to fetch grubs to her young
ones until she had been allowed an opportunity
of cleansing the edge of her nest. Contrary to
popular notions, this is a perfectly cleanly operation,
as each piece of excrement voided by a young bird
is enveloped in a thin gelatinous sack, sufficiently

WHITETHROAT ON NEST.

220 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

consistent to. allow the parent bird to remove the
whole without the slightest fear of contamination.

Whilst the female Chiffchaff was hard at work,
the male kept on wearisomely reiterating his note
first from one branch and then from another over-
head. I caught several small, light green caterpillars
and troublesome flies, and placing them on the edge
of the nest, knelt down, and waited within five feet
of it. By remaining perfectly still until she had
flown backwards and forwards past me several
times, I established myself in her confidence, and
she went to her nest and fed her young ones. As
soon as she had disposed of the supply of food
which she had brought herself, she picked up mine
and distributed it as far as it would go amongst
her more than half-grown sons and daughters. I
repeated the assistance again and again, and it
appeared on each occasion to be appreciated. Once
only during the afternoon did the industrious little
creature take a rest for about half an hour. My
brother made a study of her in front of her nest,
but owing to the peculiar conformation of the ground
and the extreme quickness of the bird's movements,
the result does not show everything as plainly as
we could have desired.

Close by we discovered a Marsh Tit's nest,
containing a- huddling crowd of almost fully-
feathered fledgelings, situated in a hole in the trunk
of a tree, and not more than four feet from the
ground. The male and female were both hard at
work feeding their young ones. They always went
away for food together and returned in each other's
company with a harvest of small, light green cater-
pillars. If they became separated for a moment,
they called to one another in notes which could
be heard at a surprising distance. When near the

222

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

nest and waiting to enter it, they let their
wings droop low by their sides, and shook
them in the tremulous manner so common to
young birds of many species when being fed after
they have left the nest. I have noticed the
same habit in other members of the Tit family.

YOUNG SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS.

Although within a comparatively short distance
of London, I found the following birds' nests all
within fifty yards of each other, and containing
eggs or young in this little copse: Carrion Crow,
Red-backed Shrike, Nightingale, Whitethroat, Black-
bird, Marsh Tit, Tree Sparrow, Common Wren,
and Chiffchaff.

During the part of our holidays which we spent
in Westmorland in the summer of 1897, my brother

EARLY FLIGHT OF YOUNG BIRDS.

223

discovered a Blue Tit's nest in a hollow birch tree ;
and whilst he was trying to photograph the old

YOUNG WOOD WRENS.

birds going in and out of the hole leading to it, I
found a Spotted Flycatcher's nest not fifteen yards
away in one direction, and a Wood Wren's less

YOUNG BLUE TIT.

than ten in another. A curious circumstance was
that they all three contained young ones, which
upon being disturbed instantly took flight.

On examining the last-named bird's nest I was
surprised to find it swarming with ants, which

224 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

were running about everywhere amongst the fine
grass and horsehair with which it was lined. They
must have been there before the young birds took
their departure upon my looking into their little
domed cradle, and how their disturbing presence
could have been tolerated I cannot make out.

The Flycatcher seldom went further than a
dead branch projecting from a tall ash tree growing
close by her nest for food, which she seemed to
allow to come to her and then snatch by a short
fluttering excursion into the air. I timed her visits
to her nest with food on several occasions during
the day, and she never exceeded two in five
minutes. I do not think that she received any
assistance whatever from her male companion, as I
never saw him near the nest. On the other hand
the cock Blue Tit helped the hen with a will, and
they invariably came back from a raid on cater-
pillars together. About noon a bird entered the
nesting hole twice in four minutes, but by six
o'clock in the evening the rate of feeding had in-
creased to six times in five minutes, that is, of
course in each case counting the combined efforts
of the parent birds.

Whilst in the heart of Essex during the Whitsun
holidays of 1897 we were shown a Jay's nest,
situated in a young birch tree growing in a thick
dark wood. In spite of a necessarily poor light,
swarms of gnats, and the shyness of a very cunning
bird, my brother determined to try to make a
photograph of her in the act of feeding her young,
so we set to work and built a thick bower of
branches, with just a small peep-hole for the lens
of his camera, near the top of the side commanding
a view of the nest, and another some distance
below it for purposes of observation.

JAY AND YOUNG.

226 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

After about half an hour's waiting the old bird
came back, and hopping about suspiciously from
branch to branch and tree to tree for a while, and
spending her time between listening and uttering
her harsh unmusical alarm note, she alighted on the
ground and made a very leisurely survey of the
bower in which the photographer knelt, almost afraid
to breathe. He could hear her hopping right round
because of the noise made by her feet upon the
carpet of dead leaves which was spread everywhere.

It was quite an hour before she ventured to
visit her nest, and when she did there was no sign
of food in her bill. Her five young ones instantly
shot up their heads and opened their abnormally
wide mouths upon her approach, and she pushed
her bill right into their throats and fed them by
regurgitation, just like a pigeon. Each nestling
was fed in turn before the old bird took her de-
parture. We spent a whole day at the place, and
suffered the most terrible tortures from the gnats
which simply swarmed and filled our little bower
with their diabolical music. When the Jay was
away for food we killed them until our hands
and faces were thickly besmeared with their re-
mains, but the destruction of one seemed only to
invite the spiteful vengeance of a dozen others.
Still my brother would not give in, and when
the bird approached her nest he set his teeth, and
shivered under the exquisite punishment rather than
make the slightest movement which the sharp-eyed
creature would be likely to detect. Several times
she either saw something that frightened her, or
fancied she did so, for she set up a loud terrified
squawking, and suddenly took her departure when
she was within a yard of her nest.

So ill-conditioned was the place for taking

PIED WAGTAIL'S NEST AND YOUNG IN OLD PAIL.

PIED WAGTAIL GOING INTO INVERTED OLD PAIL TO FEED HER YOUNG.

228 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

even a decent photograph of a tiling so full of
life and movement as a bird, and so anxious was
my brother not to miss a favourable gleam of
light through the surrounding tree tops during the
presence of the Jay at her nest, that in spite of
the gnats he would not leave his post, and I had to
go in search of some lunch for him. He succeeded
in making a series of studies, a reproduction of
one of which is given on p. 225. It is the most
dearly bought picture in this book, for in addition
to the torture endured in procuring it, my brother
was unable to sleep the two following nights from
the recurrent irritation in his hands and face,
which swelled to such an alarming extent that he
was only able to look out of two little holes in the
latter, and was quite unable to close the fingers of
the former. Our family doctor pronounced his case
to be a bad attack of blood poisoning, but was
unable to ascribe it entirely to the stings of the
insects.

We found two other Jays' nests near the same
place, containing eggs, and in an open part of the
wood fell in with a male Moorhen, which had by a
remarkable accident so entangled himself amongst
some dead branches carelessly thrown into a pond
as to be quite unable to move until we released
him, when he flew away in a great hurry.

Pied Wagtails sometimes have a fancy for odd
situations in which to build their nests. Last spring
a friend of ours discovered one inside an old pail,
which was lying upside down in a corner of his
garden. It contained young ones, and the parent
birds, which both assisted in feeding them, entered
and left through a hole in the bottom of the disused
vessel. My brother succeeded in taking a photo-
graph of one of them in the act of entering with

YOUNG BIRDS.

229

a supply of food, and afterwards made a study of
the nest and young ones with the pail turned over
on its side. The foreshortening of its interior
and the holes through its bottom give it a some-
what peculiar appearance in the picture.

It would be interesting to know how long a time
elapses between fledgelings leaving the nest and

YOUNG THRUSHES.

being abandoned to their own resources by their
parents. I am inclined to think that, whilst in the
case of birds producing only one brood in a season
they stick together for months, in that of those
producing two or three they are left to take care
of themselves in a few days.

Pretty sights of Thrushes, Robins, Shrikes, and
other birds feeding their young ones may often be
seen during a ramble by wood and hedgerow.
The above picture of a pair of young Thrushes

230 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

waiting to be fed was photographed just as their
mother arrived with a worm and called to them
from an adjoining oak tree. The bird on the left
was looking up at her at the moment the plate was
exposed.

Sometimes a male bird will rear a brood of young
ones by himself after an accident has deprived him
of the help of his companion. I remember the
case of a Red-backed Shrike accomplishing this feat
last summer in an old orchard close to my home.

SPIDER'S WEB COVERED WITH HOAR FROST,

CHAPTER VI.

WHERE BIRDS SLEEP.

•... I

TTTHEN I was a boy, nothing connected with
^ * the life of birds puzzled me so greatly as the
question of where they slept. I often tried to watch
them to roost, but with little success. That birds
sleep very lightly, and are easily awakened, is a
fact I have proved over and over again by casting
a small pebble in the air in such a way that it
would fall vertically into a large evergreen where I
knew a number of House Sparrows were roosting.
Although the stone made very little more noise in
its descent through the leaves than a big rain-drop
would have done, it instantly sent several birds out
in a great flutter of alarm. I have also noticed
how exceedingly difficult it is to approach Golden
or Green Plovers at night-time, especially on peaty
soil, which easily transmits the slightest vibrations,
and thus, I am persuaded, assists to a very con-
siderable extent in awakening sleeping birds.

To many people it is a profound puzzle how a
slumbering bird retains its balance on a slender
twig or branch that is liable to be swayed more or
less violently to and fro by a strong breeze. The
answer is very simple. Birds only roost on such
branches as they can grip firmly with their toes
and claws, and in sitting down upon them the
bending of the knee joints so contracts the muscles

232 WITH NATURE AND A GAMERA.

of the toes as practically to lock the bird to its
perch. In fact, a bird cannot leave its roost until
it has straightened its legs, and thereby relaxed
the muscles of its toes.

I have conducted a series of experiments on this
subject by watching Thrushes, Sparrows, and Robins
go to sleep on wire perches too fine and smooth
for them to grasp properly. They could retain
their balance with ease whilst conscious, but directly
they went to sleep they lost their equilibrium, and
slipping backwards or forwards awoke with a start
and either re-established themselves or fluttered to
the ground. A Rook can perch upon a telegraph
wire, but he could not go to sleep on it, because it
is not thick enough for him to grasp with sufficient
unconscious firmness.

Another question which I have often heard
asked is — How a frail little bird keeps itself warm
during an intensely cold winter's night in an open
hedge or wind-swept shrub ? The answer is, that
when it tucks its head under its shoulder plumage
and goes to sleep, it puffs its feathers out until they
almost stand at right angles to its body. This
ingenious method of disposing them entangles the
air amongst the down growing round the base of
each shaft, and, as air is a bad conductor of heat,
this helps to prevent an undue escape of warmth
from the little creature's body.

It is an exceedingly difficult matter to examine
wild birds in this condition, as the instant they
awake their feathers assume their normal position ;
however, I have succeeded in taking a leisurely
look at a few, including a Common Wren, which
looked for all the world like a tiny ball of feathers
as it sat on the outside edge of a large hole made
by Sparrows in the thatch of an old cart-shed.

EFFECT OF GOLD ON BIRDS.

233

I do not think for a moment that birds die
from cold, even in the severest of winters, if their
food supply does not fail them. After the terribly
hard weather experienced during the first months
of 1895 I had a Rook shown to me hanging by its
claws in a tree, where it was supposed to have been
frozen to death ; but I knew of a number of well-

r"

THRUSH ON SLEEPING-PERCH.

(Photographed by Magnesium Flashlight.)

fed Sparrows that slept in an equally, if not more
exposed, situation all through the winter, without
taking the slightest harm, also several barn-door
fowls that roosted every night in an old apple-tree
in perfect safety, with the exception of the chanti-
cleer, which had some of the serrations of a
somewhat large single comb frostbitten. Further,
I never yet met with a Blackbird, Thrush, or
Redwing dead in such a situation as to warrant
me in supposing that it had been frozen to death
whilst asleep, although I have found lots of

234 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

skeletons in Puffin burrows and Rabbit holes,
whither they had crept to die.

Birds that sleep in trees and shrubs always do
so with their heads to the wind during a breezy
night; and such as patronise holes in thatches and
the sides of ricks shun those infested with rats or
mice.

Blackbirds roost in evergreens and thick hedge-
rows, and when disturbed invariably flutter out
without uttering a sound of any kind, but nearly
always pipe their familiar alarm note upon re-
alighting. On the night of June 22nd, 1897, I was
in the neighbourhood of Barnet Gate, where there
was a particularly large Jubilee bonfire and display
of pyrotechnics, and I heard several Carrion Crows
and Blackbirds, which had been disturbed by the
flare and din, cry out in winging their way from
the vicinity.

Thrushes sleep in similar situations to Black-
birds, but are a trifle more partial to evergreens,
and when disturbed they often make a peculiar
snapping noise with their bills. The picture on
p. 233 represents a Thrush at roost in a hedgerow.
It was photographed by a magnesium flash at nine
o'clock at night in January, 1896, and is, so far as
we know, the first photographic study of a wild
bird on its natural roost ever made.

Open hedges and bramble bushes are patronised
by Yellow Hammers, which may always be known
by their alarm note — trit trit trit — when disturbed.
Chaffinches sleep in hedgerows, but we have met
with surprisingly few at night-time, even in districts
where they were particularly numerous by day,
although we have sought carefully and long.

We have found Robins and Hedge Sparrows
roosting in laurel bushes, boxwood trees, and ever-

SLEEPING QUARTERS. 235

greens of other kinds, and have been surprised to
meet with them close to the ground, sometimes
on a windy night.

Ivy growing against houses, rocks, and round
trees, Scotch firs in large woods, and the reed-beds
of marshlands, are all beloved of Starlings for
roosting in. I have met with them in high old
thorn hedges in summer-time, and remember once
hearing a flock chirruping and whistling in a clump
of ash trees at eleven o'clock at night during the
month of August just as gaily as if it had been the
same hour in the morning.

That some birds sleep in their old nests in
winter-time, and others utilise those made by a
different species, we have proved beyond a doubt
during our nocturnal investigations. House Spar-
rows constantly sleep in their old nests, and foul
them terribly during the time they are used as
bed-chambers. When they have paired in the early
spring, and before family cares have commenced,
the male and female often roost together in the
same hole. They are the most sagacious birds in
the world, and can adapt themselves with ease to
almost any combination of circumstances. I have
watched them go to roost behind sign-boards, in
holes under roofs, and in walls, in evergreens
overhanging much-frequented thoroughfares on the
outskirts of London, holes in hayricks, amongst ivy
growing against walls and round trees, holes made
by themselves in old thatched roofs, bare field
hedgerows, and in their own nests. They sleep
during the winter months in a number of boxes
fixed by a lady in our neighbourhood to the trees
in her grounds, for the Tits to breed in. Most
naturalists have observed the habit House Sparrows
have of picking up straws and feathers in the

236

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

autumn, and flying off with them as if on nest-
building intent, and concluded that the birds were

repairing their old
nests, a habit well
known of Rooks. I
think I can claim to
have made an inter-
esting discovery in
regard to this matter,
viz. that Sparrows so
engaged are preparing
for themselves warm
winter quarters or a

COCK SPARROW. means of more effec-

tual hiding.

During March, 1897, I examined the eaves of a
thatch covering a cart-shed, the side walls of which
were about five feet in height. The Sparrows had
cut holes from six
to twelve inches
deep in the roof,
starting under the
eaves and follow-
ing the upward
trend of the
straws, and in
three separate in-
stances these holes
were lined with
feathers and had a
collection of drop-
pings on their outer
edges. The presence of the feathers puzzled me con-
siderably, for I was certain that the species never
bred in the thatch on account of its very easily
accessible position and the fact that I had examined

NESTING- BOX

SPARROW CATCHERS.

238 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

it regularly for years during the spring and summer
months for Wrens' nests. I went round after dark
with my bull's-eye lantern, and found each feather-
lined cavity tenanted by a male House Sparrow. I
also found another male and two females, and a
Wren, in holes not lined with anything. On the
same farmstead I watched a number of Sparrows to
bed in some holes they had made for themselves in
the end of a hayrick, and upon investigation, one of
these contained a lining of feathers, although I had
good reason for believing that it had never been
used as a nest. It seems strange that one
member of a species should make for itself such
comfortable quarters, whilst another is so indifferent
to the most intense cold as to sit in a leafless
hedgerow all night. The fact is, that, although the
animal world is largely governed by hereditary
intelligence, there is really no such dead level of
unreasoning instinct abroad as is popularly supposed.
The lower animals differ as much from each other
in the same species relatively as men and women;
but these differences are often so subtle, and their
habits in a wild state so little known, that they
escape all but the very closest observers.

My investigations lead me to believe that the
majority of male House Sparrows take to the open
hedges and trees to roost in whilst their mates
are brooding; however, a few of them are true to
their old quarters in holes under eaves, thatch,
and in ricks.

Tits roost under thatch, and in holes in the
sides of ricks, and in one or two instances we have
met with them in old Wrens' nests. I have heard
it said that the male Long-tailed Tit sleeps in the
nest with the female, but unfortunately I have
been prevented from putting this assertion to the

WHERE SWALLOWS BOOST.

239

test, on account of the fact that the nests I have had
under observation have been cut out and taken away
before the female had begun to sit.

That birds of different species will upon occasion
roost together we have proved by taking a Sparrow
and a Wren from the same hole in the end of a
haystack at night-time.

FULLY-Fl-EDGED SWALLOWS SLEEPING IN OLD NEST.

(Photographed by Magnesium Flashlight.)

Swallows sleep on beams in barns where they
breed, and when molested flutter from one place to
another without making any serious attempt to
leave the building.

We have examined sheds, however, in which
were nests full of large young ones without meet-
ing with a single old bird either on them or the
surrounding timbers. I have watched them go to
roost in Scotch firs and the branches of trees over-
hanging ponds ; and their going to rest in flocks
amongst the reeds growing on Thames eyots is

240 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

one of the sights of the river before the birds take
their departure south.

Late last September I watched a brood of fully-
fledged Swallows go to roost in their old nest, and
my brother photographed them by flashlight from
the top of a long ladder.

If left undisturbed, many birds will roost night
after night in the same place, and often upon one
particular branch. Last winter we tried several
times to photograph a female blackbird in a haw-
thorn bush as she sat upon an old nest belonging
to her species, but in vain: the branches and small
twigs were too thick for us to accomplish the
making of a picture.

Pheasants are sometimes very partial to a
particular bough for roosting upon; and if any
accident, such as the blowing down or felling of
the tree to which it belongs, should deprive them
of it, they wander round, showing signs of great
concern over their loss.

Tree-perching birds occasionally live in places
where they experience considerable difficulty in
finding a natural roost. In the summer of 1895
my brother and I found ourselves stranded for a
little while at Tarbert Harris in the Western Isles
of Scotland, and whilst out for a stroll one evening
heard a Cuckoo crying his name aloud upon a
craggy hillside. I expressed some wonder as to
where he slept in such a wilderness of rocks, and
was told that he came regularly every night to
roost amongst some shrubs growing in the minister's
little garden.

Ravens sleep on ledges and jutting crags in
precipices, and are remarkable for their acuteness
of hearing. I knew an old gamekeeper in the
North of England who used to hide during the

SLEEPING ON THE WATER. 241

afternoon in a cave situated at the foot of a
scaur frequented by these birds, and when it got
fairly dark he took off his boots and crept
stealthily along until he came to the part directly
beneath where they usually roosted. In this way
he secured one now and again by an overhead
shot as the birds, which he alarmed by making an
intentional noise, flew away outlined against the
sky. His best efforts were, however, often frus-
trated by the accidental rattle of a stone beneath
his feet, startling the Ravens from their slumbers
long before he got within gunshot.

Wild Ducks, being night feeders, generally sleep
between ten and eleven o'clock in the morning on
a bank or in the water of some secluded pond,
lake, or broad. It is said that the way a duck
sleeps on a body of water without being drifted
ashore in breezy weather is by keeping one foot
tucked up and unconsciously paddling with the
other. This has the effect of making the bird
describe small circles, but I cannot understand
why it does not lose ground at the completion
of each, in the same way that a soaring bird does
in the air by drifting slowly to leeward.

I do not know whether the sexes of such wild
birds as are quite outside the influence of game-
preserving balance each other with any degree of
exactitude of numbers in all species, but I am
assured by several Sparrow- catchers that they
generally take more males than females, and this
assertion is certainly borne out by the bags of two
men whom I accompanied on their visits to ricks,
evergreens, and hedges on three separate occasions.
On the first night they caught twenty -seven birds,
consisting of seventeen males and ten females ; on
the second, six, comprising four males and 'two
Q

242 WITH NATUHti AND A OAMEUA.

females; and on the third, fifteen, made up of
nine males and six females.

While at St. Kilda in the summer of 1890,
I noticed (hat the male members of a colony of
K it) i wakes breeding on the Doon slept on the
same sheltered piece of rock every night, and were,
like many land birds I have kept under obser-
vation in similar eireumstauces, very punctilious
about going to roost. They would alight on the
i'<>ck, and, after resting for a few minutes, all rise
into the air, uttering their familiar notes with
vehement clamour whilst they took a short flight
over Village May. This kind of exercise they
repeated several times over before finally retiring
to rest.

At the same place tho Great Black-backed
(Julls used to betake themselves to an isolated rock
called Lavenish every evening to sleep, but were
back again by day dawn each morning to scrutinise
the beach for food.

I do not know when Terns sleep, but am per-
suaded that they indulge in very little, for whilst
staying on the Karne Islands last summer I used
to hear the colony of Sandwich, Arctic, and
Common Terns making as much clamour and din
between eleven and twelve o'clock at night as they
did at the same time during the day.

1 think there is every reason for believing that
many members of the Gull family sleep upon the
sea even during the breeding season, for in the
beginning of June 1 have observed both Herring
and Lesser Black Hacks beyond the Dogger Bank
at the tirst peep of day assiduously examining
the fishermen's nets. 1 am aware, however, that
they tly by night in summer-time at any rate, for
I have seen them come and alight close beside me

BARN OWL
(Photographed by Magnesium Flashlight.)

244 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

as I sat upon the beach, within a few minutes of
midnight.

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 diurnal sleepers, for they are never to be seen
on land during the daytime. I have spent days
together on and near ground occupied by colonies,
but never yet saw a member of either species,
excepting when it was taken by force from its nest-
ing burrow. They come forth at night and feed
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 sleep 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 illus-
tration was photographed by means of a magnesium
flashlight in an old barn in Essex.

These birds are popularly supposed to come
forth only at night time, but such is by no means
the case. When a Barn Owl has a family of
young ones to feed she may often be seen on a
dull afternoon assiduously quartering a hedgerow
in search of prey long before dark. A year or
two ago, whilst staying with some friends near
Leatherhead, I was standing under an apple tree
in an old orchard about five o'clock 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,
arid, 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 har-
monises 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 over-
head. Grouse, Larks, and Wheatears, all rise so

246 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA,

early that they may be heard long before they
can be seen.

That some birds require very little sleep indeed,
appears to be certain ; for I have heard the Nightin-
gale, Corncrake, and Peewit at almost every hour
of the day — and night, too. Many people have
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 day I am fully
convinced ; for on the 3rd of June, 1893, I had
unmistakable proof of the fact at Slyfield Manor
House, near Cobham, 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 neighbourhood.
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 mis-
taking the fact, for we were both perfectly familiar
with every note of the species, and the bird con-
tinued to sing for some considerable time. I have
also heard the cuckoo sounding his name lustily
when it was quite dark.

It is an interesting fact that such birds as stay
with us all the year round have about eight hours
more rest in mid- winter than in mid-summer; but
whether they spend a lot of this time awake, or
that a lower temperature conduces to more sleep,
it is difficult to say. Be this as it may, however,

PHOTOGRAPHING BY FLASHLIGHT. 247

our observations upon House Sparrows incline us to
think that they sleep sounder in summer than in
winter ; for during the former season they are easier
to approach and examine, with their heads buried in
their feathers, 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 autumn moult at any 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 summer-time, but found it
impossible on account of the thick foliage. The
accompanying picture of a red underwing 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 UNDERWING MOTH.
(Photograpked by Magnesium Flashlight.)

CHAPTER VII.

SEA-BIRDS AND THEIR HAUNTS.

ALTHOUGH 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 pictures and text have been brought
together from such widely separated places as the
Fame Islands, Bass Rock, Ailsa Craig, Inner and
Outer Hebrides, and the Saltees off the south coast
of Ireland.

During our visit to the Fames last summer we
were fortunate enough to be able to land upon the
Megstone one calm day, and study, to our hearts'
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-
position, dead young birds trampled to incredible
flatness, and streams of liquid guano, which trickled
down the sides of the crag, and stood in festering
pools in every crevice and declivity.

Upon our approach, most of the old birds took
their departure, and such of the young ones as
were able to leave their nests began to splash

WHERE CORMORANTS BREED.

249

and crawl their way 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 with
guano as they fled. Some idea may be gathered
of the poisonous uncleanliness of a Cormorants'
breeding sta-
tion when it is
mentioned that
for years after
nothing what-
ever in the
shape of moss
or lichen will
grow upon
rocks which
these birds
have used.

One old
female stood
boldly by her
nest and young
ones, until my
brother by care-
ful stalking got
within a few
feet of her and
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 by lifting its head
and taking a look round.

Although our visit was paid as late as July
2nd, and many of the young Cormorants were

CORMORANT AND YOUNG.

250 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

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 uncon-
sidered whiting and eels as had been disgorged by
their terrified offspring.

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

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 members all
rise into the air like a cloud, and after twirling and
twisting, screaming and fighting, for some time,
they are 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 impulse. The swish of
their long sword-like wings upon these occasions
rends the air and startles the ear with a bewildering

252 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

change of sound. I asked the watchers (Darling
and Patterson) if they could account for this
strange behaviour, but, although they had often
noticed it, they were quite unable to suggest any
explanation.

The summit of the Knoxes, a low island formed
partly of rock and partly 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 buffish
brown, and others a light creamy grey. The
watchers assert that the down upon each chick's
back corresponds in coloration with the egg from
which it has been hatched.

Of course, it was of no use attempting to test
this statement by comparing the colour of a young
bird lying beside an unhatched egg, because the
one afforded no manner of clue to the other, on
account of the fact that it is possible to find two
eggs in a Tern's nest as unlike each other as any
two in a thousand. I therefore only took the
evidence of such chicks as I could compare with
the shells they had just quitted, or were in the act
of emerging from, and must confess that they ex-
hibited a striking general resemblance of coloration.

Many of these young ones were very difficult
to see, on account of their wonderful harmonisation
with the sand upon which they lay stretched
out flat as they could make themselves. In order
to show the protective value of their coloration, I got
my brother to make the studies appearing on the
opposite page. Of course, they are little more than
suggestive, on account of the localisation in a small

YOUNQ SANDWICH TERN ON SAND.

YOUNG SANDWICH TERN ON BLACK CLOTH.

254 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

picture and the limitations of reproduction in black
and white. The young Tern upon the sand is
really far more conspicuous in the illustration than
in a natural state, and it must be borne in mind
that, in looking at a small picture, the eye is not
confused by a variety of fine shades of colour or
loss of that quick and certain perception produced
by wandering over an infinite number of objects
of similar size, shape, and appearance, to be met
with on a rough, shingle- covered beach.

What puzzles me greatly about protective
coloration is that, whilst these young birds
instinctively recognise its value, some of their
parents do and others do not appear to do so.
As a rule, Sandwich Tern's eggs harmonise closely
with their surroundings, and even the experienced
field naturalist has to exercise a great deal of care
to avoid treading upon a clutch when visiting a
breeding station. A friend of mine told me a few
years back that he had once visited a colony of
these birds on an island where the natural breeding
accommodation was so Limited that many of them
had conveyed patches of pebbles on to the grass,
and laid their eggs thereon. We both recognised
this as a wonderful instance of a knowledge of the
value of protective coloration; but I must confess
that last summer at the Fame Islands my faith
in the wisdom of these birds received a rude shock
when I met with five or six clutches of eggs lying
most conspicuously on small circular patches of
broken mussel shells, the dark blue of which con-
trasted violently with the golden grey of the sand.

I saw a Sandwich Tern's nest with four eggs
in it, and Watcher Patterson told me that he had
once found an Arctic Tern's nest containing five
— doubtless the production of two birds.

256 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

We had the good fortune to see and hear a
Roseate Tern two or three times over. Its note
is very similar to that of a Corncrake in harshness,
and easily distinguished from those of the other
Terns. I tried to watch the bird to the ground,
both with my binoculars and with the unaided
eye, thinking I might then be able to trace it
to its eggs, if it had any, but in vain ; it was
always lost in the ever-changing, swooping, swirl-
ing throng of white-winged creatures, and I was
obliged to give up the quest.

On the Inner Wide Opens a great number of
Common and Arctic Terns breed, and within two
or three feet of their eggs we found clutches
belonging to Oyster- catchers and Ringed Plover.
Whilst on this island, I narrowly escaped having
my cap knocked off my head by an angry Tern,
which swept down upon me again and again
with a loud scream, because I apprqached its nest,
situated amongst some sea campion, too closely.

When fishing for their prey Terns always plunge
into the sea head to wind. I noticed that upon
arriving at their breeding station, if they were
unable to discover their own offspring amongst the
crowd, running about like a flock of miniature
sheep, they rose again and flew away with the
tit-bit they had brought in their bills. Curiously
enough, whilst sitting at the end of St. Cuthbert's
little church, I could always see more birds flying
away from the Tern-inhabited islands with food in
their bills than to them. The watchers told me
that they had often been struck by the same strange
fact, and concluded that the birds were flying away
to escape robbery by their neighbours, an ever-
clamorous crowd of which are continually hanging
about over the islands.

JACKDAWS AS EGG-STEALERS.

257

The defenceless character of all the Terns
makes their eggs and young easy prey for any
winged depredator that happens to come along.
Jackdaws fly over from the mainland to harass
them, and sometimes even levy toll upon the
nests of the Lesser Black Backs and Herring
Gulls, whose eggs they finish devouring on the top

LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS.

of St. Cuthbert's Tower. This necessitates a
periodical inspection of the little bit of flat roof
by the watchers, who have to depend upon it for
the collection of their fresh water, and therefore
cannot afford to have it fouled by offensive matter.
Often our attention would be called across the
water by a great clamour and commotion, and, turn-
ing our field-glasses in the direction from whence
it came, we could see a vast congregation of Terns
hovering close over some particular part of then-
is

258 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

breeding station in a wild, shrieking mass. Pre-
sently a Lesser Black-backed Gull would rise and
take his departure, followed by a host of angry
but quite helpless Terns. Peregrine Falcons occa-
sionally pay the Fame Islands a visit, and fly
away with whatever they desire without let or
hindrance.

The mortality amongst sea-birds of all kinds,
reckoning the loss of eggs and young ones, from
purely natural causes alone, must be very great in
the course of a season. We saw a great number of
young Terns lying dead everywhere upon their
islands, and Watcher Darling told us that two years
ago very few Arctic or Common Terns got away.
He picked up several dead ones with sand-eels in
their bills, and concluded that there was no small
fry for them, and that the eels, although the natural
diet of Sandwich Terns, were too large for the
young of the smaller species to swallow.

There are now a great number of Eiders on
the Fames. I counted thirty-four barren ducks one
day all together in a little bay, and seventeen
drakes in another. As soon as the females begin
to sit the males leave them, and the glories of their
breeding plumage commence to fade. Some of the
ducks are wonderfully tame whilst brooding, and
will allow themselves to be stroked upon the back
without appearing in the least disturbed by the
attentions of the intruder. The Duck which made
her nest for so many years in succession at the
foot of St. Cuthbert's Tower, and was recognisable
by a peculiar white spot on the back of her head,
did not put in an appearance this year, and the
watchers concluded that she had been shot by some
gunner during the winter. I saw one nest with
eight eggs in it, and Darling informed me that he

EIDER DUCK ON NEST.

260 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

had known birds succeed in hatching off clutches
of from two to ten, and had seen, during his long
experience, one nest containing fourteen and another
nineteen eggs, but in neither case were any duck-
lings brought off. There can be but little doubt
that in these last cases two or more females must
have contributed. I found two nests one day
within a foot of each other. One of them had
seven stale eggs in it covered with sodden down,

WILD DUCK ON NEST.

and the other the remaining shells of a successful
hatch off.

Although I have found and examined a goodly
number of Eider Ducks' nests, I have never yet
met with one which could beat the Wild Duck at
lining one, in point of quantity of down employed.
The above illustration of a Wild Duck on her
nest was obtained close to London, and shows to
what a remarkable extent the bird must have
denuded her under-parts.

When leaving the nest of her own accord, this
down is carefully folded over the eggs, and, whether

SIDES DUCKS. 261

it is intended to or not, serves the useful twofold
purpose of preventing an undue escape of heat
and lessening the chances of discovery by a
prowling enemy.

Young Eiders are the hardiest little birds in
their own element I have ever seen. They will
dash into a boiling sea from almost any height a

YOUNG EIDER DUCK.

day or two after they have made their advent into
the world.

One rough day we went out to try to photo-
graph the breakers as they tumbled in upon the
rocks at the northern end of the Fame. After
making one or two studies we walked round the
north-west corner of the island, and suddenly came
upon an Eider Duck and seven small young ones.
We stopped, with the intention of withdrawing,
but as the old bird did not seem in the least

262 WITH MATURE AND A CAMERA.

disconcerted by our presence, we stood still and
watched. She walked deliberately to the edge of
the cliff, which could not have been less than
twenty feet deep, and without the slightest hesita-
tion went over into the sea. To our astonishment,
her little ducklings followed her into the turmoil
of waters one by one in the most unconcerned
fashion. In less than a minute she was gallantly
breasting the big seas, with her offspring touching
her tail and each other so closely that the whole
family might easily have been covered by an
ordinary pocket-handkerchief.

We were anxious to obtain a photograph
of an Eider duckling, but found it quite im-
possible to get near enough to one for such a
purpose.

One day, however, a very strange thing hap-
pened. We were photographing the watchers and
their boat in a little sandy bay, when the very
fowl we wanted walked right up to us with
the most uncanny deliberation and fearlessness.
Whether St. Cuthbert — with whom, I believe, the
fowls of the air were on very good terms whilst
he lived on the island — sent it, or the bird mistook
one of us for him, I cannot tell; but the strange
incident filled us all with wonder.

Watcher Patterson told us he once saw an Eider
Duck with five small young ones accidentally leave
two ashore in a deep crevice in the rock when
she took to the sea. A Lesser Black Back
happened to be passing at the time, and, seeing
his opportunity, stooped and carried off one of the
downy little creatures, which he swallowed in mid-
air. No sooner had he accomplished this feat than
he descended again, and, seizing the other, flew
away with it.

264

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

We visited the far-famed Pinnacles again, and
found them crowded as thickly as ever with
Guillemots, many of which evidently had young
ones, for they were edging their way into the
seething noisy mass with sand-eels in their bills.
Below them were a number of Kittiwakes, and their
downy young ones, all of which were panting and

gaping from the oppres-
sive heat.

Our pictures of the
Guillemots and Kitti-
wakes were both ob-
tained on the Saltee
Islands.

A few land birds
occasionally breed upon
the islands. Some years
back a Linnet made its
nest in a small elder-
berry tree growing in
the Fame lighthouse-
keeper's garden, and a
Blackbird amongst some
rhubarb stalks. A
member of the last

species also made its nest not long ago in a hemlock
plant growing on the Wide Opens.

A number of Shelducks breed amongst the
sand dunes, between Sea Houses and Bamborough
Castle on the mainland, and the fishermen look
upon them as the most artful birds in existence.
As an instance of a Shelduck's cunning, they assert
that when she leaves her nesting burrow she drags
her tail upon the ground, so as to obliterate her
footprints in the sand, and thus save her nest from
discovery and molestation.

YOUNG BLACK GUILLEMOT.

THE BASS ROOK.

265

The Bass Rock is one of the finest Gannet
breeding stations in the British Isles. It is now
under the proprietorship of Mr. Colin Mackenzie,
of Canty Bay Hotel, near North Berwick, who owns

GUILLEMOTS.

every facility for conveying visitors in almost any
sort of weather across the mile and a half or so of
sea dividing it from the mainland.

We have been twice on the rock during the last
two or three years, but on neither occasion have we
been favoured by good weather for photography.
Our second visit was paid at six o'clock in the

266 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

morning on July 7th, 1897, when we found the
Solan Geese still busy building*, or perhaps, more
strictly speaking, repairing their nests, for I saw
one hard at work adding to its nursery of sea-
weed, although it contained a good-sized young
one.

It was quite comical to watch one of these
great birds come creeping along the edge of a cliff,
in the face of a stiff breeze, with an immense

GANNETS ON THE WING.

tangle of weed hanging from its bill in such a
way as to form a kind of rudder, whose eccentric
flappings made its bearer wobble strangely in
flight.

I saw two birds steal the materials of a neigh-
bour's nest, which they pulled almost to pieces
during her temporary absence, caused by our pic-
ture-making efforts; and close to the same place
we witnessed a terrible battle, which ended in both
the contestants rolling in a confused heap right
over the cliff.

Gannets with young are very easy birds to
photograph, as they will allow the naturalist to
walk about amongst them with no more protest

GANNETS ON BASS ROCK.

268 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

than a vigorous peck at his legs. In one case a
bird in the foreground spoilt a picturesque group
which my brother desired to take, and, as she
would not leave her young one, I was obliged to
push her off the cliff with my cap folded tightly
round my right hand.

I was greatly astonished at the length of time
such large birds could remain poised over one
particular spot, with their wings outstretched and
motionless. Of course, it was managed by taking
advantage of the pressure of a strong and steady
breeze striking the face of the cliff and then being
deflected upwards, but the grace and apparent ease
of it were truly marvellous.

My brother was anxious to obtain a picture
showing a good crowd of Gannets in it ; and when
he descended for that purpose to the very edge of
the cliff, and began to stalk the birds (with his
camera in front of him) from ledge to ledge — off
any of which the slightest slip meant a headlong
plunge of a hundred and fifty feet into the sea
below — I saw one of the men who had accom-
panied us in the boat turn away, and heard him
mutter to himself, " Venturesome divel ! he'll never
go off the Bass alive."

While we were at work a flock consisting of
several hundreds left the rock, and, flying out into
the Firth of Forth, went through a mazy sort of
aerial waltz, which lasted half an hour.

The Bass Rock is a much easier and safer
place to visit than Ailsa Craig, but, except
in the case of Gannets, it is not so rich in sea-
bird life.

Whilst walking round the loose sides of the
latter, Puffins scuttle out of every conceivable and
inconceivable hole and cranny, and are easily

COMMON GULL'S NEST.

PUFFINS AT HOME.

270

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

caught as they tumble down the steep hillside
leading to the edge of the cliff, where they gain
wing and fly away out to sea. At the Bass, Tammy
Norie, as they are called, were by no means
numerous last summer, and hundreds of forsaken

t%&tf*

rzZ'i r

% *r »>

NEST OF BLACK-HEADED GULL,

burrows, stuffed almost full of wind-drifted feathers,
gave the place the appearance of an old worked-
out mining district.

A Puffin is a grotesque-looking bird at any time
during the breeding season, but to watch three or
four standing on a piece of timber bobbing up
and down in a fairly rough sea is an extremely
comical sight.

272

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

Great numbers of these birds breed at the
Saltee Islands, where we obtained the photograph
from which the picture on page 269 has been
reproduced.

On the small islands forming part of the Inner
and Outer Hebridean groups, we have met with
the Great Black-backed and Common Gulls, and

SCOULTON MERE.

their nests, eggs, and young, but nowhere in large
numbers.

We have twice visited Scoulton Mere, in
Norfolk, and punted across to the boggy reed-clad
island in the middle of it, where breed one of the
largest colonies of Black-headed Gulls to be met
with in the British Isles. When within seven or
eight miles of the Mere the visitor becomes aware
of the presence of the birds, for they are in every
field where the plough is at work, following it
just like rooks. Their eggs are collected at the

GATHERING GULLS' EGGS.

273

beginning of the season and sold for consumption
as human food. Some idea may be gathered of the
magnitude of this colony when it is mentioned
that as many as 20,000 eggs have been gathered
in a single spring. The outside number of a
clutch of Black-headed Gull's eggs is three ; and
although the birds lay again when robbed, second
efforts are not molested.

When we visited Scoulton in the summer of
1895, the rats appeared to be committing great
havoc amongst the young birds, judging from the
numbers of dead and partly devoured ones we saw
lying about.

RAZORBILL AND EGG.

CHAPTER VIII.

HOW CAGE BIRDS ARE CAUGHT I A DAY ON BRIGHTON

DOWNS.

BEING- desirous of learning something of the
methods employed in catching such of our
feathered friends as give pleasure by their pretty
songs or interesting habits to people who cannot
possibly study them in their native wilds, my
brother and I journeyed to Brighton, on the Tth
November, 1896, in order to interview the bird-
catchers and photograph them with their engines
actually at work on the Downs.

The weather had been fine and settled all the
week, and the sport in full progress; but no sooner
had we reached our destination than it began to rain
and blow in the most disheartening fashion, and we
knew that unless a considerable change for the better
took place, we were likely to have to return empty-
handed, for bird-catchers will not risk injury to their
decoy birds by taking them out in dirty weather.

The following day dawned cold and hazy, with
a very strong wind blowing from the north-east. We
had a walk over the Downs, but did not see a single
bird-man out. In the course of our long tramp,
however, we observed a Goldfinch or two, several
flocks of Linnets and Greenfinches, Starlings and
Larks innumerable, besides three separate flights of
House Martins. The first two companies, consisting
of three and six birds respectively, were flying due

MOTOR CARS. 275

west in the strongest and most business-like fashion,
and the third, containing four individuals, in exactly
the opposite direction. As our chances of doing
better on the morrow were more or less problem-
atical, we returned to town without even having
unpacked the camera.

November being, according to our veteran natural-
ist friend, Mr. Swaysland, one of the best months in
the year for our purpose, we hurried down again
at the end of the week, and arrived at Brighton in
time to hear all the cabbies in the station crying
out, u Motor car! Motor car, sir!" in anticipation
of the horseless vehicles which made their historic
initial run from London on that date. I have good
reason for remembering the introduction of motor
cars, for on the following day, after having obtained
permission to ride on one for a short distance, the
thing suddenly went wrong, and although I patiently
waited for an hour and a half in a biting cold wind,
it utterly refused to make a start. Whatever may
be the ultimate development of these vehicles it is
impossible to foretell, but a great deal of uncertainty
prevailed in regard to their movements when they
were first introduced to our public roads. The
engineer in charge of the one in question told me
that it had been driven an aggregate of ten thou-
sand miles on the Continent without a hitch, and
that its refusal to start was inexplicable.

When I think of the picture that car and its
owners made as they slowly trundled it out of
Brighton Railway Station, to the great delight of a
crowd of jeering cabmen, I can thoroughly appreciate
the humour of the small boy who, in similar
circumstances, walked solemnly in front of a motor
'bus and whistled " The Dead March in Saul" !

On the occasion of our second visit, we started

276 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

out early, in the morning for the Downs with the
prospect of a capital day for our purpose before us.
The first man we fell in with was catching
Starlings on a piece of bare pasture land, and ex-
plained that such a pitch was the most favourable
for his kind of sport. The presence of grazing
Horses, Cows, or Sheep, although these were liable
to walk on to his nets, he considered a great

CLAP-NETS AND DUMMY STARLINGS.

advantage, as Starlings when feeding are partial
to the neighbourhood of live stock.

The nets used for catching Starlings, Larks, and
Linnets are larger than those employed for securing
Goldfinches or Bullfinches, and measure as much as
sixty-six feet in length by six feet three inches in
width. Attached to each end of the nets is a green-
painted stave, which is secured on its inner end to
a peg firmly driven into the ground. The fastening
between the peg and the stave is such as to form
an easy hinge. The pull-line is so disposed that it
acts upon the outer ends of the stave-poles directly

NETTING STARLINGS. 277

it is jerked, and folds the nets over the intervening
space shown in our illustration. It is generally a
few yards longer than those used for drawing the
nets set to catch smaller birds, which are from thirty
to forty yards in length. If the man engaged in
catching Starlings can work his nets from behind a
hedge, the concealment he enjoys acts considerably
to his advantage.

Half a dozen stuffed Starlings are stuck up all
close together, as if busily engaged upon a rare find
of grubs in the clear piece of ground between the
nets, and a live one called a " Jackey-bird" is secured
to what is known amongst the bird-catching fraternity
as a "flur" or "playstick," which can be moved up
and down by means of a string which the fowler holds
in his left hand.

As soon as a flock of Starlings is seen approach-
ing, the u Jackey-bird " is set in motion, and upon
espying this, and the little crowd of dummies who
are apparently enjoying good things on terra firma,
the individuals in the air swoop down to participate
in the feast, and are promptly covered by the fowler's
nets.

The young fellow to whom the pair of nets
figuring in our illustration belonged, told us that
he had once caught twenty-seven dozen Starlings in
a single day at a place called " Happy Valley."
One morning in August he secured no less than
forty-eight birds at a haul, and assured us that they
" kicked up" a deafening row by way of protest.

Upon leaving this man we walked over to a
favourite piece of ground, where we counted no less
than seven sets of nets, spread in such close proximity
to each other that it appeared difficult to understand
how they could be worked without interfering with
each other's sport.

278

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

BIRD-CALL

Bird-catchers generally work in pairs, and whilst
one man attends to the nets the other beats the

adjoining ground in order
to send the birds towards
his companion, who imitates
their call to perfection with a
W^ Jj:* little tin instrument made in

wMRp the form of a flattish drum

with a hole through the
centre. This is placed be-
tween the caller's lips, and the
desired notes reproduced by
forcing the breath quickly through it. Mr. Sways-
land astonished me by his skill in fetching flocks
of Larks in full flight from considerable altitudes to
the ground with
it, and quickly
taught me how
to use it with
effect.

We next vis-
ited a man who
had his nets
spread along a
steepish hillside.
He had seven
call-birds, con-
sisting of two
Linnets, a Gold-
finch, Greenfinch,
Chaffinch, Siskin,
and Redpoll,
each in a small

green cage, disposed as represented in our illustra-
tion on page 279. He had also four "Jackey-
birds," attached to playsticks situated between the

CALL-BIRD CAGE

280 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

nets. These consisted of a Goldfinch, Chaffinch,
Greenfinch and Linnet, and were tethered to their
movable perches by means of a light brace passed
round the body before and behind the wings, and
having a swivel which prevented the little captives
from twisting the string between them and their
playsticks and thus becoming entangled. The
small picture shows a Goldfinch on the raised play-
stick to which it was attached.
Food and water are placed

PLAYSTICK AND LURE BIRO.

within reach of the "Jackey" or " play-birds," so
that by addressing themselves to the meal provided
they may induce others to alight and join them in
the feast.

Often the little prisoners observe flocks of their
own species passing overhead, and begin to attract
them before the fowler himself has become aware
of their presence. We saw lots of birds, however,
that would not be lured either by the blandishments
of the decoys or their well-imitated call-notes from
the body of the little tin drum in the mouth of
the nets-man. They had seen too many of their
friends taken by the deception, and were wise in
their generation.

When birds are heard or seen approaching the

A GOOD DAY'S SPORT. 281

nets the playsticks are instantly elevated by a pull
on the string commanding their movements, and
the "flur" or " Jackey " birds perch upon them
and survey their surroundings. As soon as the
strange birds have been lured within the nets the
playsticks are released, and the decoy birds flutter
to the ground, the nets being suddenly pulled over
the unwary visitors. So quickly can this be accom-
plished by an experienced hand that we witnessed
one man drop his playsticks and bring his nets
over a Linnet before it had actually alighted upon
the ground.

The best call-birds are not used on the play-
sticks, but are kept constantly in the cages, and
are so valuable to the bird-catchers that at the com-
mencement of the season Goldfinches often change
hands at a pound apiece and Lmnets at from ten to
fifteen shillings each.

Birds caught young and tamed in a cage are
considered far superior to those reared from the
nest for calling purposes, as their notes are more
perfect and consequently more seductive.

The man in our picture on page 279 had caught
two dozen Greenfinches before eleven o'clock on the
morning we visited him, and told us that the best
day's sport he ever remembered having had supplied
him with eleven dozen birds, consisting of Larks,
Linnets, Redpolls, Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Chaf-
finches, Titlarks, and Starlings. He seemed sur-
prised that anybody should take sufficient interest
in bird-catching to photograph it in operation ; and
when I jocularly told him that we had come to
Brighton to " immortalise " him, he looked alarmed,
and said he hoped our picture wouldn't turn up
against him at Lewes Assizes.

In order to show how newly-caught birds are

282

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

caged, my brother took a photograph of a receiver
belonging to two young fellows, who had their
nets spread alongside a plot of mangold wurzel.
The top of the cage has two circular holes in it.
These have each the leg of an old cotton stocking
tacked neatly round them, and once the captured
bird has been thrust down the ingenious funnel

BIRD-CATCHER'S RECEIVER

thus formed its chances of escape are very small
indeed.

Bird-catchers carry two tin bottles out with them
— one containing tea or such other beverage, as
fortune will afford, and the other water for their
birds, about whose welfare they are, as a rule, most
solicitous.

The labour of carrying the nets, call-birds, and
other paraphernalia about the country is divided be-
tween the two men in partnership, and the picture
opposite illustrates how the plant is conveyed from
place to place. The handkerchief in the* hand of
the man on the left contains the bodies of such

BIRD-CATCHERS AND THEIR PLANT.

284 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

birds as .have been slain for the table during the
morning. Hen Linnets, Greenfinches, Larks, and
Chaffinches are mostly killed when caught.

One of the grandest sights, from an ornithological
point of view, to be seen on the South Coast of
England in winter-time, is undoubtedly the immense
flights of Larks, Fieldfares, and Bedwings. These
great avian movements generally occur when snow
is on the ground and a sharp visitation of frost is
holding sway, but are not seen every year. The
birds all trend westwards in their flight, and present
an almost unbroken stream, which appears to be
composed literally of millions of individuals.

During the few days of sharp wintry weather
which we experienced in January, 1897, there was an
exceptionally large flight, and whilst it was in pro-
gress the Brighton bird-catchers secured no less than
a thousand dozen Larks alone before twelve o'clock
one morning.

Although this appears to be a heavy bag of
sweet singers, it is in reality but an insignificant
tithe upon the prodigious whole. The vast flocks
which visit the Downs in winter are believed by the
bird-catchers to come from the Continent. Whether
this be so or not it is pretty certain that there
is never any lack of Larks in England, and often
more than sufficient for the farmers of arable land,
whose early corn they damage when it is shooting.

In Scotland, on the other hand, the bird is said
to have decreased in numbers during the last decade
or two, owing to the introduction of railways.

Flight-netting is managed with one net only,
measuring twenty-five yards in length by seven feet
in depth. It is worked on the same principle as the
ordinary clap-nets already described, but is always
pulled over so as to meet the birds in their flight

HOW BULLFINCHES ARE CAUGHT. 285

and strike down all those which happen to be
travelling low enough to come in contact with
it. Of course, success depends to a considerable
extent upon the judgment and skill of the man,
who makes the net describe its half -circle by a
sudden pull upon the hauling-line. An experienced
hand has been known to kill seventy or eighty
dozen Larks in a single day.

As some indication of the abundance of bird-
life on the Downs in the late autumn, a good day's
sport with the clap-nets round Brighton yields eight
or ten dozen Linnets, ten or twelve dozen Green-
finches, two or three dozen Redpolls, seven or eight
Goldfinches, and probably a Siskin or two, and a
few Cirl-Buntings or Bramble-Finches.

Occasionally a wild hybrid — between a Green-
finch and Linnet, Goldfinch and Greenfinch, Gold-
finch and Linnet, Twite and Linnet — is caught.

Sparrow-hawks and other members of the Fal-
conidse are sometimes caught in the act of stooping
at the poor little "Jackey" or uflur" birds, and
short shrift quickly follows their entanglement in the
fatal meshes. Rooks, too, are occasionally bagged
as they fly low over the nets, which suddenly rise
like a pair of huge, all- enveloping jaws to encom-
pass their destruction.

Bullfinches are caught by many cottagers in
Kent and Sussex during the winter months with
the kind of trap shown on page 287. A call-
bird is placed in the lower compartment of the
cage, and the upper one is baited with privet
berries, which can be easily reached by the un-
wary victim through the open doorway shown in
the picture. The trap is hung up in a tree, and
as soon as a bird enters to partake of the good
things provided by the benevolent peasant, its weight

286 WITH NATURE AND A GAMEEA.

releases a small door above its head which instantly
closes, and eventually the little prisoner finds its
way, along with five or six others, to a bird dealer's
shop in the nearest town.

Larks are caught on dark nights, as they roost
upon the ground, by means of a net fifty yards
long and eighteen feet deep. It is mounted on
two poles, one at either end, and carried along by
a couple of men with the top about four feet off
the ground and the bottom just touching the grass,
so as to disturb the sleeping birds and make them
rise. Directly a Lark flutters upwards the net is
dropped, and the victim, discovered by its efforts
to escape, is taken out. Sometimes several birds
are secured at one drop of the net, and often Par-
tridges, Fieldfares, and Coots have also been taken.
Of course, it is of no use attempting this kind
of nocturnal sport where fields have been " bushed"
by gamekeepers to prevent poachers from netting
Partridges.

There are some favourite bird - catching places
during the autumn migration at considerable dis-
tances from Brighton, and when the men intend to
visit these they start the night before so as to be
on the ground they intend to work by dawn the
following morning.

Most of the birds caught on the Downs find
their way to the London markets ; the live ones to
such quarters as Great Andrew Street, Seven Dials,
and the dead ones to Leadenhall.

The character of the ground upon which we
found nets spread did not appear to exercise any
influence, as might have been supposed, over the
men in the selection of their pitches. We found
some on stubble and land from which root crops
had been removed, whilst others were trying their

FINCH TRAP.

288 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

luck upon grass and fallow-fields ; in one or two
cases, where dung had been spread. One couple of
young fellows, who must I think have been entirely
devoid of olfactory nerves, occupied an upland slope
which was thickly manured with pieces of fish in
all stages of decomposition. My brother made our
friend Swaysland laugh heartily by gravely inquiring
of the men whether they were catching Cormorants
— the humour of the idea being suggested by the
similarity of the smell to that encountered where
these birds breed.

Bird-lime is hardly ever used now amongst Sussex
bird-catchers, but is still employed in the West of
England and on the Continent for taking Gold-
finches, Siskins and Redpolls.

Cock Chaffinches are caught in some parts of
the country by means of bird-lime during the early
spring, when they are bubbling over with song and
pugnacity. The method adopted is to take out a
tame bird in a small cage tied up in a handker-
chief, where the little creature will continue to rattle
off its defiant notes all day long, and hide it amongst
some bushes close by where a wild bird is singing.
A stuffed bird is then set up just over the caged
one, and, although well in view, is surrounded by a
number of twigs and sticks liberally besmeared with
bird-lime. The unsuspecting free bird on hearing
the song of the hidden captive, at once concludes
that it proceeds from the stuffed one, at which he
instantly dashes in a storm of anger, and, knocking
it over, becomes entangled amongst the smeared
twigs.

In order to see this kind of birdcatching in actual
operation we went out with a crack Seven Dials
man one day, but he was not at all successful during
the time we spent with him. When we came to the

CATCHING CHAFFINCHES. 289

corner of a meadow where a Chaffinch was singing,
the man stuck a dilapidated dummy, which he fished
out of the crown of his bowler hat, into an old field
rail, and two little pieces of flat steel weighted at
the base with lead and besmeared with birdlime
over it, in such a position that any Chaffinch de-
scending to do battle would be likely to touch one
or both of them with its wings and become en-
tangled. His call-birds were placed just beneath,
and their cages hidden by a few handfuls of grass.
One Cock Chaffinch came, but he was either too
wary or cowardly to attack with sufficient vigour to
be caught, and contented himself with sitting
uneasily beside the disreputable counterfeit dummy,
and listening to the defiant challenges of the poor
little prisoners hidden amongst the grass just below.
My brother succeeded in photographing him in this
position.

A strange peculiarity of the male Chaffinch in
confinement is that the gloomier its surroundings
are the lighter its heart appears to grow, for it
sings best when kept in continual darkness. In less
humane times the Germans used to take an un-
speakably cruel advantage of their knowledge of
this peculiarity and destroy the poor bird's sight
with a red-hot wire.

A friend of ours has a small allotment garden on
the outskirts of Brighton, which he has arranged
in such a cunning manner that it forms a haven
of rest for little feathered wanderers who land on
that part of the coast when they are journeying
northwards in the spring to their breeding haunts.
It is here, too, that many of our summer visitors
take a last rest before flying across the Channel
and away to their winter quarters in the sunny
South. This little ornithological oasis is hemmed

290

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

in on every hand by thick hedges, and surrounded
by other gardens, in some of which trees of moderate
size are growing. In the centre is an ideal little
pool, that looks as natural as peat-smoke in a High-
land glen. It is commanded by a pair of small
clap-nets, which are worked from a neat little
summer-house at the bottom of the garden. Our
friend, who is justly proud of his home-made
miniature loch, informed us that migratory birds

are particularly fond
of stopping to wash
and refresh them-
selves at it; and in
evidence of the way
it is appreciated, it
need only be men-
tioned that he has
caught pied, grey,
and yellow Wag-
tails whilst they
have been running
about on its pebbly
banks in a single
season.

He used to catch Nightingales in his garden
in great numbers by means of a trap baited with
mealworms. One of our illustrations on page 293
represents the engine set ready to receive a visitor.
Directly the unwary bird hops on to the raised,
circular kind of perch in the centre, with a view to
devouring the tempting grubs within it, he releases
a spring, which swiftly carries a net over him and
renders his chances of escape exceedingly small, as
a reference to our second picture of a similar trap
with a Robin in it will show. Although' not
exactly the same kind of trap, it works on the

WILD CHAFFINCH STUDYING BIRD-
CATCHER'S DUMMY.

CATCHING CHAFFINCHES.

292 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

same principle, and is exceedingly effective amongst
the members of some species when baited with
what they like. Redbreasts and Hedge Sparrows
are easily caught with it in winter-time, but its
temptations are seldom great enough to overcome
the sagacity of a House Sparrow.

Such is the rush of Nightingales southwards
between the last week in July and the last
week in August that our friend says he could
easily catch a hundred specimens in his hand-
breadth of garden alone.

On one occasion he secured as many as seven-
teen Redstarts in a single morning, which is an
astonishing performance when it is taken into
consideration that it occurred in the early spring.

It is an interesting fact that there is nearly
always a morning, during the first or second week
in May, when every garden in and around Brighton
swarms with newly-arrived migrants, such as White-
throats, Nightingales, Lesser Whitethroats, Redstarts,
and Willow Wrens. No sooner, however, have the
little travellers rested themselves than they are
off again, and next morning there is not one of
them to be seen.

As an instance of the dangers encountered by
some of our summer visitors in journeying back to
their old haunts, Booth mentions that Whitethroats
in crossing the Channel — when flying low to avoid
the full force of a fresh north-westerly wind — are
often struck down by the spray from a wave
breaking just ahead of them, and drowned.

It is strange to note how much a bird may
modify its habits in a journey of only two or
three hundred miles. Having been familiar with
the Ring Ouzel and its shy habits nearly all my
life in the mountain regions of the North, I was

NIGHTINGALE TRAP.

ROBIN IN BIRD TRAP.

294 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

astonished to find that, when journeying south in
the autumn, the bird has, by the time it reaches
Brighton, become so bold that it visits streets
almost in the heart of the town in order to feed
off elderberries and rowans overhanging the pave-
ments.

Birdcatching on the Sussex Downs appears to
be an inherited kind of instinct amongst some
families, whose members have followed the sport
for generations.

SNAIL ON GRASS-STEM.

CHAPTER IX.

THE ART OF D U C K - D E C O Y I N G .

all the contrivances invented by the ingenuity
of man for the capture of wildfowl, I think a
Duck decoy is at once the most interesting and the
most deadly. The first one made, and worked by
enticing the birds into it, in this country was, it
is believed, that constructed by Charles II. in St.
James's Park.

Some idea may be gathered of the effective
nature of this engine of destruction when it is
mentioned that about a century ago no less than
31,000 wildfowl of various species were taken in
a single season by ten Lincolnshire decoys.

The precision of modern firearms and the great
increase of gunners of all kinds have almost reduced
decoying to a lost art. However, there are still a
few pipes, as the contrivances are called, worked
in different parts of the country; and the man who
looks after those I am about to describe — three in
number — succeeded last winter in killing 1,500
head of wildfowl, despite the fact that he was not
working upon an ideal piece of water, and was
continually harassed by a number of flight shooters,
who waited for his birds in some adjoining property,
over which he had no control, and blazed off at them
almost every morning and evening, as they came in
from and left again for the mud flats by the sea.

296 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

Successful Duck-decoying can only be carried on
by the fortunate combination of several important
essentials. (1) Perfect quietness upon the body of
water, large or small, to which the birds come to
spend the day. (2) A good set of well-kept pipes,
each trending to a cardinal point of the compass,
for it is absolutely necessary when a pipe is worked
that the wind shall be blowing from the tail of it;
for Ducks always swim and fly with their heads to
the wind. The pipes are, for this reason, named
from the direction in which they point. (3) A well-
trained, intelligent dog of small size, quick action,
and silent habits. If it resembles a fox in colour
so much the better, but this qualification is not
now considered so essential as it was in olden
times, when the decoy-men attached so much im-
portance to it that they tied the skin of a fox on
to a dog's back, and allowed the brush to trail upon
the ground. (4) A number of well- trained lure
Ducks that will come to the decoy-man's whistle or
the sight of his dog, and swim steadily up the
pipe ; and last, and most important of all, a man of
more than average industry, intelligence, and skill.

In order to make this chapter as complete as
possible, from a pictorial point of view, we jour-
neyed twice to East Anglia ; once, when the wild-
fowl were being actually caught, and it was impos-
sible for us to photograph the mouth of the pipe
without frightening the fowl away ; and again in
summer-time, when we could go anywhere without
fear of doing harm.

A decoy pipe is a ditch shaped somewhat like
a cow's horn or an ear trumpet, and is sufficiently
curved to make it quite impossible for anything
going on at one end to be seen from the other.
It is about one hundred and fifty feet in length,

DECOY PIPE FROM TAIL END.

298 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

seventeen or eighteen feet wide at its mouth, and
gradually tapering to a couple of feet at its tail.
The water in it is about fifteen inches deep at the
wide end, and three or four at the narrow one. If
a spring or small stream should empty its waters
into the pipe, it is considered an advantage, as wild-
fowl swim better against a slight current.

The pipe is covered by iron hoops, commencing at
the mouth with one having a span of from twenty-
five to thirty feet, and a height, from the centre of
the arch to the water, of something like fifteen feet ;
the hoops gradually diminishing in size as they
approach the tail of the pipe to about two feet in
diameter. The whole is covered by a hand-spun
hemp net, with a two-inch mesh, well coated with
tar and tan. I was assured by the decoy-man that
one of these nets will last twenty years. Some
pipes are covered by a four-inch mesh at the
mouth, and for some distance down, and then one
of half the diameter.

One decoy we examined was covered with gal-
vanised wire, which had been treated in the same
way as a hemp net. Some decoy-men have an
objection to wire netting, on account of its tendency
to hum in a breeze of wind, and thus frighten
the Ducks away ; however, the man we visited
experienced no difficulty of this kind.

At the tail of the decoy pipe is a detachable
net from twelve to fifteen feet long, held open by
hoops two feet in diameter, and lying on the
ground. In some cases a kind of hopper is made
close by the end of the receiving net, to throw the
dead fowl into.

On either side of the mouth of the pipe the
banks slope gently down to the water's edge, and
are flat and roomy, especially on the side where

300

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

the sunshine falls, in order that Ducks may land
to preen themselves and sleep thereon. These
banks extend for more than half way up the pipe,
gradually narrowing as they do so, until they

vanish alto-
gether, and
the hoops
and netting
come close
down to the
water's
edge. On
the screen
side, or left
bank from
the entrance,
and about
one-third of
the distance
in, we found
a wire cage
let into the
bank con-
taining a
couple of
lure Ducks ;
but this is

a dodge, I believe, peculiar to the man whose
pipes we visited. No leaves or twigs are allowed
to accumulate upon the pipe, and over-hanging
branches or shrubs, calculated to darken any part
of it, would be instantly lopped off.

On the left hand side from the entrance is a
double row of reed screens, about five feet in
height, running parallel with the pipe for some-
thing like two-thirds of its length. The outer

CAGE FOR DECOY DUCKS.

302

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

is a plain one, with gaps in it here and there for
the convenience of the decoy-man upon entering to

examine the pipe. The
inner screen consists of a
series of pieces arranged,
as shown on page 301,
in such a manner that the
decoy-man can see down
towards the tail of the
pipe without being seen
himself by any fowl coming
into it or outside upon the
lake. Between each piece
of this zigzag screen is
a small one running at
right angles for the decoy
dog to jump over. It is
about two feet in height.

A few yards in front
of the mouth of the pipe
is the head show place,
where the decoy -man first
shows his fear-inspiring
form when the wildfowl
are well within the pipe.
A few yards further along
on the same side is a
cunningly devised hole for
the dog to creep through
when the luring commences.
Behind the two screens
there is a great bank of
earth with trees and shrubs
growing upon it, and in

this is a dug-out path by which the decoy- man
enters the grounds and takes his departure.

PEEP-HOLE IN SCREEN.

DECOY-MAN MAKING HIS SURVEY.

304 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

The screens are made of dead reeds, and are
five or six inches thick. They are held close
together by wooden rails or galvanised wire. The
decoy-man told us that the latter is far better, as
it does not collect and hold the water behind it, to
rot the reeds, like a wooden rail.

Stuck through the inner or zigzag screens,
commanding a good view of the pipe mouth and
lake, are several dagger-like pieces of wood, a foot
in length and an inch and a quarter wide, which,
when turned on one side, open a small vertical
slit in the reed screen, through which the decoy-
man makes his survey.

All the paths are swept clear of twigs and
leaves, and covered with a thick layer of sawdust,
so that the decoy-man's footsteps may not be
heard.

The lure Ducks that are at liberty in and
around the mouth of the pipe number about twenty,
and are very similar in appearance to Wild Duck.
They are only fed in the evening, after the wild
ones have left for the mud-flats, except at such
times as when the decoy-man is at work catching
fowl, when he flings bruised oats, buckwheat,
maize, malt grains, or acorns into the pipe.

As soon as the lure Ducks hear the decoy-man's
low whistle, or see his dog, they know there will
be some grain floating down the pipe, and they
swim up — the steadier the better, for these Ducks
are so trained that as soon as the decoy-man
appears at the head show place, and the wild birds
rise and fly up the pipe, they quietly swim down
again towards the lake.

Wildfowl are taken between October and March ;
and during a hard frost the decoy-man puts on his
sea-boots at midnight, and, taking a long-handled

BREAKING UP THE IGE. 305

axe and boat-hook, cuts up the ice round the
mouth of the pipe, and thrusts it beneath that
formed upon the lake. It is a great point in
successful wildfowling to keep the water in the
pipe, and for some distance around its mouth, free
from ice, as such birds as frequent the lake during
open weather bring a lot of strangers back with
them on their flights to the coast during a snap
of hard frost.

Many decoy-men are too anxious to begin to
kill the wildfowl directly they visit their water.
It is a great mistake, because, if they kill them
nearly all at the beginning, the few remaining
birds do not induce many strangers to fly back
with them from the mud-flats in the morning.
Ducks fresh from the sea are known by a mark
upon their breasts, left by the salt water, but this
quickly disappears when they frequent fresh water.

As wildfowl are very acute of scent, a piece
of burning turf is taken by the decoy-man when
he goes after Duck, in order to counteract the smell
of his breath or clothes. This strange proceeding,
according to Sir Ealph Payne Gallwey, had its
origin in the fact that " in the fens of Lincoln-
shire turf was largely burnt before coal came into
use, and it was supposed that the wildfowl, being
accustomed to its smell, did not mind it, whereas
they would that of the decoy-man."

I will now endeavour to describe how the
actual work of taking wildfowl is done.

We trooped silently down the sunken path
leading from a track near the decoy-man's cottage
in the wood to the pipes. He led the way with
a piece of burning turf in his left hand, and his
little liver-coloured bitch close at his heels. When
we reached the screens, he placed his piece of

306

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

turf upon the ground, and, gently twisting one of
the dagger-like sticks from the vertical to the
horizontal, peeped through the slit in the reeds,
and beckoned us to come and look.

Some two hundred head of wildfowl were to

DOG'S HOLE. (See p. 802.)

be seen: a few upon the far bank, at the mouth
of the pipe, and in the open water in front of it,
but the great majority on the ice beyond. Those
nearest the pipe appeared to be full of attention
and alertness, whilst those further out were either
preening themselves or sleeping peacefully. In
some places they were collected in dark groups,

308 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

and in others they were scattered pretty generally
over the ice.

The decoy-man quickly twisted the stick back
to its original position, and the peep-hole instantly
closed. Creeping stealthily forward, he gave his
dog a piece of bread, and sent it through the hole
in the reed screen, beyond the head show place,
and glided swiftly and silently back. The dog and
he appeared to meet at the head show place at the
same moment. It jumped over, and, taking a piece
of bread from its master's hand, jumped back
again, and directly afterwards appeared at the
next opening, between the zigzag screens. After
this performance had been repeated several times,
and the decoy-man had thrown sundry handfuls of
grain from his jacket pocket into the pipe, he
stopped and peeped through one of the screens.
A number of wildfowl had followed his dog out
of curiosity, or his lure birds after the grain, and,
darting through a gap in the outer screen, he ran
back at great speed to the head show place, and
frantically waved a large red cotton handkerchief.
There was instantly a great splatter and commotion,
and the decoy-man raced like mad from one show
place to another, giving his handkerchief a flick at
each as he passed.

The poor Ducks flew straight on, heads to wind,
no doubt thinking that just round the bend in the
little creek was an open glade in the woodland
leading to freedom and safety, but, alas! the fatal
pipe narrowed, and the much-dreaded man followed,
with his waving sheet of flaming red ; there was
no retreat, and on they went pell-mell, frantically
hustling each other to get through the little hole
at the end — to find themselves in a treacherous
cul-de-sac.

A MAN OF NOTIONS. 309

We all ran at the top of our speed along the
sawdust path to the detachable net at the end of
the pipe, where we found six Wild Ducks tearing
up and down in the greatest fear and consternation.
One old Mallard had struck his head against an
iron hoop supporting the wire netting over the
decoy pipe, and was lying flat on his back in the
last throes of death.

The decoy-man quickly detached the receiving
net, and, taking the wildfowl out one by one,
dislocated their necks by a dexterous turn of his
wrist.

He was distinctly a man of notions, for he told
us that he had invented a method for making up
for his decline in speed (the result of thirty years'
hard wear and tear at the pipes and gamekeeping)
when running from one show place to another along
the side of the pipe. He had fixed a red handker-
chief on a stick at the next show place to the head
one, so that directly he frightened the birds by his
appearance he could pull a string and hoist it,
and thus prevent any wildfowl in the pipe from
turning round and flying back before he reached
the place. He also told us that he sometimes uses
a tethered lure Duck at the mouth of the pipe, and
has an idea that, if a long, narrow mirror were
hung across the decoy at a certain height above
the water, the birds outside, seeing themselves in
it, would swim up, thinking that their reflections
represented other and bolder members of their
species.

He was, in addition to being a skilled hand at
the pipes, a most kindly, good-natured fellow. One
morning we visited his cottage at six o'clock, and
found him bustling about and feeding some poor
old wayfarer, who had dropped in to see him, with

310

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

liberal supplies of rum and milk and cake. The old
fellow, who evidently belonged to the neighbour-
hood, told us that he remembered the time when
smugglers used to hide their contraband goods in
the middle of the wood we were then in. One
Sunday morning, whilst out for a stroll, he came
upon a man guarding a cargo of spirits which was
to be taken further inland, and the smuggler begged
of him not to inform the authorities.

" Did he give you any, bor?" inquired the
decoy-man laughingly.

" That he did,'7 answered the old man; u an' I
didn't tell on him nayther."

WILD DUCK ON HER NEST.

CHAPTER X.

PEOPLE WE HAVE MET.

OUR travels up and down the British Isles have
naturally thrown us amongst curious characters
of all classes, and it is my intention to relate in
this chapter something of our doings with the
most interesting of them.

In the late spring of 1895 my brother and
I left Oban in a steamer plying amongst the
Western Isles of Scotland. The passengers we met
on board were of a rather mixed order — tourists,
missionaries, Highland servants of both sexes on
their way to or from engagements, commercial
travellers, pedlars, and migrants.

One hearty old Highland woman and her buxom
daughter were moving to the bleak and lonely Isle
of Rum, with their few sticks of household furni-
ture, a cow, yearling calf, arid half a dozen domestic
fowls. The cow had not been milked the morn-
ing she was put on board, and as the day wore
on the poor creature's udder became distended, and
she lowed as cows will under similar circum-
stances for relief. I noted this, and asked the
owner's daughter whether I might milk the animal.
At this she laughed until the tears shone upon
her brown healthy-looking cheeks. The mere
incongruity of a Heeland coo being milked by what
she no doubt took to be a Cockney tourist, struck

312 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

her as being altogether too funny for resistance.
A great hulking Highland lad, with a red head
and a supercilious affectation of wisdom on his
countenance, had a deal to say, mostly in Gaelic,
upon the matter ; and just to see how far he
would allow his assumption of knowledge to get
the upper hand of his native caution, I offered
to wager him a shilling that I would milk the
cow dry inside of ten minutes. Although the stake
was small, his discretion saved him. The old
woman to whom the cow belonged readily gave
her assent, and borrowing a bucket from the chief
steward, I sat down to my task. Some of my
fellow-passengers looked on in amused curiosity,
no doubt expecting to see me sent sprawling
along the cargo deck by the resentful cow, whilst
others of the superior order appeared shocked,
but I didn't mind as long as there was some
fun and good new milk to be got out of the
transaction, besides relieving a suffering dumb
animal. When I started to milk, the cow turned
her head and looked at me in great amazement.
She sniffed the scent upon my clothes, and rolled
up the whites of her eyes in such a wicked way
as made it quite plain to me that under different
conditions she would not, without effective protest,
have suffered the indignity of being milked by a
man who carried not the aroma of peat smoke
about him. I milked the flood of thin milk away
into the bucket, and, calling for a drinking glass,
drew the rich remainder for a Highland railway
manager, a missionary, my brother, and myself.
This piece of practical sagacity, proving that I
knew a cow's richest milk is always given last,
raised the red-headed Highlander's opinion of me
considerably.

AN ABSOLUTE PROPRIETOR. 313

Whether the old woman regarded me as an
eligible suitor for the hand of her daughter I
know not; but be this as it may, the old lady
fell greatly in love with me, and I was afraid
lest she might want to kiss me before she left
the ship in a little bay running into the rugged
sides of Rum. Anyway, I breathed more freely
when she was seated in the boat along with her
daughter waving tender farewells to me with a
white handkerchief as the distance grew greater
between us.

When we reached a famous bird -island a
little farther to the north, we found the proprietor
on it collecting his rents from the crofters. This
was an unfortunate thing for us, for in addition
to an eccentric notion as to the absoluteness of a
man's sway over what he owns, the old gentleman
had been shamefully duped by some professional
egg- collector not long before the date of our
visit. We presented our credentials, but he only
laughed at us, and regarded us as a couple of
fools for coming so far for photographs of birds'
nests in situ when we might have gone to South
Kensington Natural History Museum and got
pictures of " nests, eggs, old birds and all."

I wheedled and coaxed, but to no purpose; he
absolutely declined to allow us to take a single
photograph on the barren, dreary looking place.
I will give him his due, however ; he was quite
affable, and when he found out that I knew
something about sheep, he chatted freely about
the price of wethers and other ovine matters, as
we sat together in the sunshine on a little garden -
seat in front of the hotel at which we were
staying. Presently he closed his eyes and dozed
off to sleep, his fine old head bobbing back and

314 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

forth in the most comical fashion for lack of a
rest. Just at the moment I espied five men re-
pointing the gable end of a building a little
distance away. Two of them were working on
a scaffold, and the remaining three standing on
the ground calmly surveying their progress. I
drew my brother's attention to them, and re-
marked, " It takes two Highlanders to do a piece
of work, and three to look on." This observation
electrified the slumberer, whose head had given
such a violent backward bob as to awake him,
and, jumping to his feet, he exclaimed with a snort
" The devil ! and at my expense too."

He descended upon the men in a fair whirl-
wind of passion, and I can vouch for it that
they honestly earned their money for the rest
of that day.

After this little episode his heart softened
slightly towards us, and he suggested that we
might go and photograph some grotesque looking
rocks which could be seen out at sea from where
we stood in front of the hotel, as they had a
somewhat peculiar geological history. We didn't
care a brass farthing for the rocks or their history,
but we understood the value of humouring an
old man in power, and promptly invested half-
a-crown in the services of a very clumsy gillie,
who nearly drowned us in a fierce tidal current.
We landed on an island almost opposite the rocks,
and walking over a rough promontory which bore
pathetic signs of crofters' huts and wee patches of
cultivated ground, long since abandoned to the
inexorable forces of nature, arrived at a high cliff
in the face of which was a great black cave.

Upon walking to the edge of the roof of this
cave there was a great clatter of wings and o

SHAGS AND THE WHALE. 315

hurrying stream of Shags and Rock Doves poured
from its dark recesses. The former alighted upon
the sea in the bay below and swam about close
together, but the latter seemed to disappear
entirely. I was somewhat surprised to see a
Heron lazily flap its way out, but upon peeping
over I discovered its nest and eggs situated on a
jutting crag.

Whilst we were engaged in making photo-
graphs of the cave, our attention was attracted
by a peculiar noise, which sounded something
like a mixture of snorting, wheezing, and sighing
away out seawards. Although curious, it was
strangely familiar to me, and I suddenly remem-
bered that I had heard the same weird maritime
music before as I lay tossing one dark night at
the bottom of a smack's boat in the middle of the
North Sea. "A Whale!" I cried, and just then
the monster rounded the end of the rocky pro-
montory which we had just crossed. He came
straight into the little bay, and afforded us one
of the most curious sights it has ever been my
good fortune to see. The Leviathan rose for
breath right in the middle of the flock of Shags,
and the birds churned the sea into a great white
star of foam in their terrified haste to take wing
and escape. The day being perfectly calm and
our position right above them, the clatter of their
wings and feet along the surface of the water
until they gained the air was truly astonishing.

On our return to the hotel I reflected that
we had come a long way, spent a lot of money,
were within a walk of what we wanted, could
do absolutely no harm in getting it, and resolved
to resort to strategy in order to procure what we
desired. I accordingly communicated my scheme

316 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

to my brother, and we arranged with a very

intelligent fellow who knew the ground almost as

well as the palm of his hand, to be ready to

go out with us at two o'clock the following

morning.

We did not go to bed that night, although
we retired to our room, and just after 1 a.m.
we stole forth from the hotel, boots in hand, so
as not to disturb the slumbers of our fellow
sojourners by any undue clatter in the stone
flagged hall. Our guide joined us at the very
tick of the appointed hour, and together we
trudged for three or four miles in the still strong
morning air across a piece of country thickly
clothed with heather, long coarse grass and rushes,
and profusely dotted with innumerable small lochs
and bogs.

By-and-by we came upon a Red-Throated
Diver sitting upon her nest, which was situated
on a wee island of peat standing right in the
centre of a little tarn. I detected the bird
through my binoculars and watched her slip
quietly away upon our approach. The tarn was
far too deep to wade, but my brother would have
swum across to the island had we had a rope
on which we could have sent his camera across
to him as we have since done under similar
circumstances.

Whilst examining the shores of another small
island in a large loch with my field-glasses, I
had the good fortune to see a Shelduck leave her
nesting burrow — a habit practised by these birds
in the very early hours of the morning.

We found the water lying between the shore
of the loch and the island comparatively shallow,
so waded over to examine the Shelduck's nesting

HEBRIDEAN PEAT DIGGERS,

318 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

hole. No sooner had we reached our goal than
there was a tremendous fluttering commotion
amongst the hip-deep heather clothing the island,
and a couple of Wild Geese splashed into the
loch and paddled away out to a safe distance.
We found three of their young ones about a
week old, and after a deal of trouble succeeded
in making a photograph of them.

We saw several pairs of Richardson's Skuas
and Red-Throated Divers, and succeeded in finding
and photographing a nest and egg belonging
to the latter species, but the former defied our
best efforts.

Between four and five o'clock our guide's
courage suddenly evaporated as he remembered
that there had come to reign over that particular
beat a king arrayed in velveteen who knew
not Joseph. This was rather awkward, so we sat
down to breakfast and a little reflection on the
side of a rough turnpike.

A teetotaler is a real rara avis in those parts,
and my brother and I came off rather badly at
times in regard to liquids. This may be judged
from the fact that one of the serving girls at the
hotel did not even know what lemonade was,
and there was not a drop in the place. Our
" peculiarity " was a lucky thing for our guide,
from his point of view, because it made him
heir to three shares of " mountain dew" packed
away carefully by our thoughtful landlady.

When we had finished breakfast, I said to the
man, "Now, I don't want to get you into any
trouble at all, so just sit where you are whilst
my brother and I hunt for nests ; and if you see
anybody coming, give us a warning whistle, and
we'll retreat." He assented, and we proceeded to

UNEXPECTED SUCCESS. 319

hunt for the nest of a Richardson's Skua. Presently
he arose from his seat upon the side of the
turnpike, and came running towards us at a rare
pace. I was curious to know what was the
matter, and speedily discovered that the liquor
had warmed his heart to such an extent that he
was bubbling over with Dutch courage, and
quite ready to defy a whole regiment of game-
keepers.

We were back in the hotel by six o'clock

CROFTER'S HUT, OUTER HEBRIDES.

with pictures of the nest, eggs, or young of four
additional species to our collection; and our guide's
fortune was greater than that of the Yorkshireman
who met a friend and gladdened him with the
information, " Ay, lad, but I had a grand day on't.
I were drunk by ten o'clock i' t' mornin'."

In the afternoon, whilst out for a stroll on an
inhabited part of the island, we came upon two
old men cutting peats. We got into conversation
with them, and I volunteered to take a hand with
the spade. The one who was using it good-
naturedly complied with my request, and it was
quite ludicrous to see the pair of them stand agape
with astonishment at the skill with which a mere
English tourist could handle the tool.

320 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

We succeeded in inducing them to allow us to
take a photograph of them at work.

During the winter-time the Atlantic Ocean casts
ashore on this island some very useful flotsam and
jetsam, which is highly appreciated by these poor
crofters, whose lives may not inaptly be described
as prolonged periods of monotonous hunger and
ease. Last winter the harvest of the sea was
a scanty one, and the Elders of the Free Kirk,
thinking that they had not been enjoying a fair
share of good things from the bountiful deep, offered
up some heartfelt prayers that they " would pe
plessed wis a wreck, put no man's lives to pe
drowned."

We were anxious to visit the Shiant Islands, a
famous group of sea-bird breeding rocks situated in
the North Minch, not far from Tarbert Harris ; and as
our time was very limited we tried to secure a boat
and crew to take us off at night, in order that we
might make some photographic studies in the early
hours of the morning, and then lie by and let the
mail boat for the South pick us up at sea. We
experienced great difficulty in finding out anybody
who could give us such information as would help
us in getting a crew together, owing to the fact that
nearly all the male members of the population were
away at sea, fishing. We were at length directed to
a man who was engaged in digging peats between
two huge lumps of rock away up a steep hillside.
I explained to him what we wanted, and said that
I was prepared to pay for night-work double the
amount usually charged by a crew for taking visitors
off to the islands during the daytime. He listened
with the intent curiosity of a man to whom learning
something of other folks7 business is a real pleasure,
but when I asked him what he thought the charge

A VERY CAUTIOUS SCOT. 321

would be, he somewhat astonished me by the follow-
ing curious answer: "I ken weel what I would do
it for mysel', but I'm no going to tell ye."

We had met many a cautious Scot before, but
a frank avowal of our business invariably secured
his best advice and kindly assistance. This man's
caution, however, was unconquerable, so we left
him and went into a crofter's hut not far away,
and watched a woman weaving Harris tweed. The
room was chock-full of smoke, and we came out of
it with smarting eyes and the aroma of peat reek
strong upon our garments.

In returning to the hotel we met a man and
his wife leaving Tarbert Harris. The latter had a
bonnet on, which, for downright warmth of colour,
would have shamed a Hyde Park geranium bed in
July, and her husband, a little squat man with dark
twinkling eyes, was carrying her boots, tied by the
laces round his neck and dangling on his broad
breast like tokens of distinction.

We hunted for half a day after birds' nests
amongst the dreary waste of grey rocks on either
hand of Tarbert Harris, but found far more empty
whisky bottles than birds' eggs.

When we got back to Oban we hired a boatman
to take us out to some small rocky islands in the
Firth of Lome. The day turned out to be dead
calm, with not a ripple on the sea and an almost
tropical sun blazing overhead. We helped Donald
to pull his great lumbering sailing craft, which was
three times too large and heavy for the weather
and the occasion, out to the islands, and when we
landed on the one he judged best for our purpose
we certainly found it rich in bird-life. After we
had clambered all over the place and photographed
several nests, we sat down to lunch, half dead with

822 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

thirst and fatigue. To our unutterable dismay, the
packer of our luncheon basket had forgotten to put
us up a drop of anything to drink.

"What! naething to drink?" says Donald.

"Not a drop," says I.

Poor fellow ! it was only by a tremendous effort
he survived the calamity.

" Is there any water on the island?" I inquired.

" Oo ay, I ken a place where maybe there'll be
a wee drap, I'm thinking; but watter's watter, after
a', sir," he added sadly and significantly.

We found the " drap " under a huge crag, warm,
brown in colour, and of peaty aroma. It had
plenty of birds' feathers in it, showing that it was a
place where they came to bathe; however, I tried
it. The endeavour was vain; it simply would not
go down. My brother declined altogether to try it,
but not so Donald; he went down on his knees,
and for a while there was a sound as of many
waters rushing through a confined space. When
he arose, he wiped his mouth with the back of his
great brown hand, and, looking at us with con-
siderable disdain, remarked — " Ah weel, I say the
mon who canna drink that is no dry."

Late one evening in June, 1895, we found
ourselves at Girvan, on the Ayrshire coast, and
directly opposite Ailsa Craig, to which we were
anxious to pay a flying visit, and get away South
by a train leaving Girvan about twelve o'clock the
following day. We discovered that the " awesome
rock " was rented by two brothers, curiously enough
named Girvan, one of whom lived on it, and the
other in the town ; the former showing visitors over
the rock, and the latter conveying them forth and
back in a small steamboat. I hunted this worthy
man out, and told him that we wanted to run over

AILSA CRAIG. 323

to the Craig very early in the morning. With a
little gush of that kind of natural amiability one
meets with in men anxious to do business pleasantly,
he gave himself away, and said :

" I'll just take ye ower at anny time ye like, sir."

My reply staggered him visibly.

" You are the sort of man for my money. We'll
start at two o'clock in the morning," I exclaimed.

" Oh, that's varry 'arly ! " he ejaculated. " I
canna mak' steam much before that 'oor, even if I
sit up the neet."

I was anxious to maintain the advantage I had
gained by his unguarded offer, so pointed out that
he would get back in such good time as to enable
him to sleep all the afternoon. He finally assented,
and, setting to work, got up steam by the appointed
hour, and we crept out of the harbour and away
across the nine or ten miles of choppy sea dividing
us from the great weird pillar of rock standing high,
gaunt, and grey out of the ocean.

We all had breakfast with the Craigp Girvan,
and greatly enjoyed his fried Guillemots' eggs,
bread and butter, and large cups of tea, mollified
by liberal quantities of rich goat's milk.

We ascended the great crag under the guid-
ance of the brother who lives upon it. He
seemed very doubtful about my ability to visit the
ledges whereon the Gannets breed, but when I
convinced him of my determination to do what he
or anybody else did, he led the way upwards, and,
by way of making me feel the hazardousness of the
undertaking, he pointed out one place where he
had himself sustained a fall that had, according to
his own account, broken well nigh the majority of
the bones within his body, arid another where a
nephew of his had been killed outright.

324 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

After we had taken a number of photographs
on the very brink of an awful cliff, whilst poor old
Girvan sat on the steep hillside above, and swore
by all the saints in the calendar he would never
get us off the Craig alive, we descended to the
landing place again, much to the good-natured old
man's delight.

When we got down to the safety of a fairly
wide goats' track he became quite jolly, and turn-
ing to my brother with a great air of mock
sincerity, he said: " Mr. Keeaarton, I have a verry
perteekilar request to make."

" What's that?" my brother inquired.

" If you take my photograph, for goodness sake
dinna promise to send me one; then it may come.
I have had scores of amateur photographers on
the Craigs, including many meenisters, and most of
• them have taken my likeness and promised to
send me a copy, but never a one has reached me."

We had not much time to catch the train for home,
and I urged the Girvan Girvan to put on all steam.
This the obliging man did until his little craft
shook and trembled from stem to stern like a
thing stricken with palsy under the vibration of
her machinery, some of which became so over-
heated with friction that it was necessary to keep
it cool by allowing bucketfuls of sea water to
trickle over it from a hole punched in the bottom
of a large zinc pail.

For purposes of communication with one another
these two brothers keep a number of homing
pigeons. Some time ago the one living on the
Craig had a child taken seriously ill, and sent a
message for a doctor, whom his brother promptly
took across in the little steam launch which con-
veyed us over. The doctor found the child very

LANDLORD OF THE HIGHEST INN IN ENGLAND.

THE HIGHEST INN IN ENGLAND.

326 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

much in need of medicine, but the wind and sea
were rising to such an alarming extent, in addition
to the fact that night was coming on, that there
was no hope of sending any over that day. The
little sufferer's father was, however, equal to the
emergency, and suggested that one of his homing
pigeons should be taken from the loft and the
medicine made up in the form of a powder
attached to its tail. This was done, and in a little
while the anxious parents had the satisfaction of
seeing the faithful bird drop from the clouds with
the much-needed physic, which, it is pleasant to
relate, saved their child's life.

We have met many people who entertained
very curious notions in regard to the possibilities
of the camera. My brother one day photographed
a man who had done us some trifling service, and
when he sent him the picture, it elicited the inform-
ation that his wife liked it very much indeed,
and had authorised him to say that she would be
happy to pay a moderate price for three more
prints, provided my brother would turn down the
too much upturned trousers legs of her spouse.

During our travels we have generally met with
considerable difficulty in obtaining anything like
up-to-date intelligence of the bird-life of a locality.

The following verbatim report of a conversation
which took place between myself and a farm lad
I met one day in a Hertfordshire lane illustrates
in an admirable manner the want of definite
notions in the rural mind about such important
things as time and space.

"Have you heard any hooting owls about here,
young man ? "

"Oh yes!"

"Where?"

THE HIGHEST INN IN ENGLAND. 327

" Just over in that there wood," pointing to a
little copse not far away.

"Lately?"

"Oh yes!"

"Well, how lately?"

" Oh, a matter o' two year ago."

Whilst searching for materials on the hills
dividing Yorkshire from Westmorland in the
neighbourhood of Shunnerfell and Nine Standards
we had occasion to stay for a little time at Tan
Hill, the highest inn in England and the highest
inhabited house in Yorkshire. It enjoys an elevation
of 1,727 feet above sea-level and a corresponding
degree of isolation. Some idea may be gathered
of the distance it lies from " the busy haunts of
man" when it is stated that during the summer
months an eight een-gallon cask of ale lasts a whole
month, and in winter three. In fact, eleven con-
secutive weeks have sometimes passed without as
much as the shadow of a stranger Crossing the
threshold.

The landlord, in spite of being an old man
of between seventy and eighty years of age, all
spent immured amongst the gloomy solitude of the
lonely hills, was as merry as a schoolboy, and
laughed at his own jokes until the tears ran down
his wrinkled cheeks.

Although the Education Acts, the popular print-
ing press, and the iron road have filled the remotest
parts of our land with a hazy and belated know-
ledge of the wag of the world, it is surprising how
utterly, and to me picturesquely, outside the pale
of modern thought and feeling some of the sturdy
old hillsmen of our country still remain. This old
fellow went to Barnard Castle to see a solicitor
about his licence, and couldn't tell the time upon

328 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

the town clock because " its hands pointed to one
thing and it kept on striking and striking another
every quarter of an 'oor " ; and he saluted a girl
who was washing the solicitor's office steps down
with "Is thy faather in?"

He told us that he had once been summoned
by the parish in which he lived to appear at York
as a witness in a trial against a farmer for over-
stocking the moor with sheep. When the witnesses
were about to enter the "justice room," one of
them, on catching sight of the judge and advocates
in their wigs and gowns, ran back to him in alarm
and exclaimed " Ay, Poonder, I niver saw such a
lot of grey-headed old men all together in my life !
They must be older than Methuselah ! "

During our stay an old farmer dropped in and
ordered himself a glass of ale. In the course of
conversation it fell out that he had been to London
three times, and stayed for several days upon each
occasion. I asked him how he liked the Metropolis.
"Fine! " said he: "London's a grand spot to spend
a holiday at, but I always took good care niver
to be oot after dark."

In the summer of 1896 a pair of Barn Swallows
made their nest and reared a brood of young in
a fowl-house at the back of Tan Hill Inn, and
the landlord told me he used to leave the door
open every night for their convenience. I examined
the old nest with a ladder, and calculated that, as
the building was one of two floors, and it was
nearly in the highest part of the roof, it must have
been not less than 1,750 feet above the sea-level.

Last Whitsuntide my brother and I found our-
selves in a remote Essex village, and, as we were
unable to obtain any sort of inn accommodation, we
stayed with a gamekeeper in his tiny, old-fashioned

ESSEX GAMEKEEPER.

330 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

cottage. He was in many respects one of the
most curious men with whom we have come in
contact. Well -versed in everything pertaining to
field-craft, slow and deliberate, but of the most set
purpose and dogged determination, strong as an ox,
and courageous as a lion, but withal tender-hearted
to a degree.

When quite a small boy he was apprenticed to a
gamekeeper who, though a strict disciplinarian where
others were concerned, was totally unable to hold
himself under control. He used to set his apprentice
to mind young pheasants in the morning and, leaving
him for the seductive conviviality of a neighbouring
public-house, say — "If I'm not back by the time the
so-and-so train passes this morning, you'll know I'm
done for for the day, but don't you leave the birds."
It was often one and two o'clock the following morn-
ing before the debauchee turned up again, and found
his youthful apprentice crying, but resolutely stick-
ing to his post, in spite of wind and rain and the
terrible loneliness of his vigil-keeping.

Although, comparatively speaking, still only a
young man, our friend's experiences throw a lurid
light upon the dangers of his vocation. He has
had his comrade shot dead beside him by a
poacher in cold blood, has been deliberately shot
himself by a member of the same fraternity,
threatened with murder any number of times,
and once or twice been thoroughly peppered with
shot by accident.

We have several times visited the Fame Islands,
and upon each occasion have received the most
courteous and kindly attention from Robert Darling
and his fellow-watchers, the brothers Patterson, who
are employed by an association for the protection
of the sea-birds breeding on this famous group of

GRACE DARLING'S NEPHEW ROBERT.

332 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

islands. Bobert Darling is a nephew of the famous
Grace, whose Bible he possesses, and is the only
member of the family now connected in any
capacity with the Fames.

We stayed three days and three nights with
him last summer in the ruins of St. Cuthbert's
Tower, sleeping in hammocks suspended from our
climbing ropes, which were stretched across a
haunted room. I had the good fortune to be
aroused by the tapping of a ghost the first night,
and promptly turned out to investigate, but found
nothing for my brother's camera and magnesium
ribbon except a huge piece of old oak panelling,
from which, I had no doubt, the sounds, though
surprisingly loud, proceeded through some atmo-
spheric change ; so turned in again without dis-
turbing him.

The lighthouse men keep a large number of
tame rabbits, which wander all over the little island
and interbreed with the wild ones. Whilst creep-
ing up to get a nearer view of some bird, I was
on several occasions startled by a black, white, or
fawn-coloured bunny darting from the shelter of a
boulder of rock or tuft of grass close beside me,
and scampering away at the top of its speed either
to the ruins of St. Cuthbert's Tower or to the
Lighthouse itself. The keepers had taught one or
two of them to run after pebbles, just like dogs.

The grass growing upon the Fame Island itself
is coarse and poor, and as much of it is never
touched by the rabbits, one year's growth has to
force its way through the dead and matted mass
of another, until the whole feels like walking on a
huge fleece of wool.

The watchers keep a number of crab-pots con-
stantly in the sea, whilst they are looking after

THE HEROINE OF THE LONGSTONE LIGHTHOUSE. 333

the birds, and we frequently enjoyed a fine
crustacean for tea.

I have met people with an inclination to
discount the feat of the heroine of the Longstone
Lighthouse, but I have no sympathy with them;
for after having rolled about the bottom of a boat
like a live trout in a creel, and watched sea-water
run almost continually off my brother's chin, as if
it had been transformed into the spout of a tea
kettle, in consequence of his refusal to keep his
head below her weather gunwale and be made a
prisoner beneath her if she succeeded in turning
over, during half a gale of wind in those parts, I
have nothing but admiration for the frail girl and
her heroic deed. Long may her memory last !

THE LONQSTONE LIGHTHOUSE.

CHAPTER XL

OUR METHODS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.

AS we are often asked how we obtain our pictures,
-"- and do not believe in withholding any inform-
ation likely to be useful to those who desire to
share in the fascinating pastime of making studies
from the great Book of Nature, I propose in this
chapter to tell how we do our field work.

The great points about successful natural history
photography are : the possession of suitable appa-
ratus to work with, an aptitude for taking care in
stalking timid creatures, and plenty of patience and
determination to wait for and get what is wanted
in spite of obstacles.

The illustration on the following page shows our
working plant. We take all our photographs with
a half-plate camera. The one represented in the
picture was specially built for us by Dallmeyer,
and contains a pneumatically- worked silent shutter
between the lens and the sensitised plate, in addition
to a focal plane one, also worked by compressed
air at the back. The adjustable miniature camera
on the top is of the same focus as that beneath it,
and is extremely useful in making pictures of flying
birds or restless animals. When it is in use, the
large camera is charged with a plate ready for
exposure, and the photographer manipulates the
focussing screw, which moves both in exact ratio

OUTFIT DESCRIBED.

at the same time with one hand, whilst he holds
the air-ball attached to the pneumatic tube in the
other and presses directly a suitable opportunity
presents itself. Our indiarubber tubing measures
about one hundred feet in length, and is joined in

OUR OUTFIT.

five or six places by hollow pieces of metal, so
that almost any length can be used, according to
circumstances.

Our climbing ropes are two hundred feet each
in length, and an inch and a half and two inches,
respectively, in circumference. They were specially
manufactured for us from the best Manilla hemp,

336

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

by Messrs. Galloway. Matthews & Co., of Appold
Street, E.G. The thicker, or descending rope, has
three loops at its end formed by plaiting the
strands of which it is made, and then lashing them

firmly to the rope above.
These the climber puts
round his hips as shown
in our illustration of the
method of descending a
cliff, and practically sits
in them.

The revolver is used
for the prosaic and
harmless purpose of
making a loud report
at the top of any cliff
in the face of which
there is reason for be-
lieving some bird's nest,
which we desire to
photograph, is situated,
so that by frightening
its owner off we may
locate the exact spot at
which to make a descent.
The climbing irons are
very useful in ascending
tall trees to examine
the nests of such birds
build in elevated

METHOD OF DESCENDING A CLIFF.

as

situations ; but my

brother, who is a good gymnast and can climb
almost any sort of growing timber without
assistance, has no great partiality for them. A
good pair of field-glasses are indispensable, and
more than double the pleasure and profit of a

338 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

ramble along the countryside. I have a pair of
Dollond's, which make me envied by every sea
captain who has the good fortune to look through
them. One clear day last summer Grace Darling's
nephew said to me, as we stood at the foot of St.
Cuthbert's Tower, on the Fame, "I can see the
halliard rope swing from the Longstone Lighthouse
flagstaff [which is two miles away] with your
glasses, sir." I was incredulous, but this frame of
mind soon turned to one of astonishment when I
looked for myself and saw it bellying in the
wind. We use a powerful bulPs-eye lantern for dis-
covering and focussing birds on their natural roosts
during dark winter nights, and a small looking-
glass with an adjustable handle for attaching to
the end of a rod, or long stick, and examining
the interiors of such nests as are situated on
branches too slender to bear the weight of the
climber.

Cliff photography, although really not very
dangerous, is at first rather trying to the nerves,
as I can testify from experience, having literally
walked backwards — of course, with the ropes on-
over the edge of a perpendicular precipice seventy
feet deep, in order to be in a position to under-
stand and appreciate the sensations of this branch
of my brother's work.

Upon reaching a cliff which we desire to
descend, and having located the exact position of
the nest to be photographed, we drive a moderate-
sized crowbar from twelve to eighteen inches into
the ground at distances varying from four or five
to ten or twelve feet away from its edge, accord-
ing to circumstances, and sloping slightly out of
the vertical in a backward direction. One end of
the guide rope is tied securely round it close to

DESCENDING A BIG CLIFF.

340 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

the ground, and the rest flung over the cliff. The
descending rope is now passed once round the
crowbar, as near the bottom as possible, in order to
reduce the leverage, and whilst the man who is
going to manage the lowering takes charge of it,
the photographer, with his camera lashed to his
back, slips the loops round his hips, and seizing
the guide rope in both hands to steady himself
by, prepares to make a descent.

A few of the important points to be remem-
bered in connection with this branch of natural
history work are: — (1) To use good and reliable
ropes, and have a thoroughly trustworthy, level-
headed man to work them, as the chief source of
danger lies in having a nervous or careless fellow
at the crowbar. (2) To see that the last-named
tool is driven well into solid ground. (3) To clear
away all loose stones and pieces of rubble between
the foot of the crowbar and the brink of the
precipice about to be negotiated, for, should this
precaution be neglected, the descending rope is sure
to dislodge them when it is being hauled up ; and
even a small stone, with the velocity gained by a
fall of thirty or forty feet upon it, can do a great
deal of damage to the photographer or his camera,
if it happens to strike either of them in its down-
ward plunge. (4) Not to allow the descending rope
to run in any cleft or crevice, as it may either
stick fast altogether when being pulled up again
or sustain considerable damage by chafing. In
order to prevent either of these awkward eventu-
alities, it is a good plan to run it through a
piece of leather tubing over the edge of a cliff.
When making a descent, I get into some position
from which I can watch my brother's movements,
and convey his requirements to the man at the

DESCENDING A CLIFF. 341

rope, either by word of mouth or by a simple
prearranged code of signals when the distance is
too great to make ourselves heard.

Two of the nastiest sensations connected with
the work are stepping backwards over the brink of
a very high cliff into space and spinning slowly
round like a piece of meat on a roasting-jack,
and watching the sea chase the land and the land
chase the sea upon becoming insulated through the
crags at the top overhanging. Most people in de-
scending a cliff on ropes for the first time prefer,
instead of keeping their feet against the rock-face
and walking down, to scramble hands and knees
against it; but the sharp projections play such
havoc with skin and clothing that, if they have
nerve enough to persevere in the recreation, they
soon try a better way.

On arriving at a ledge with a nest upon it, my
brother allows his body to assume a horizontal
position almost at right angles to the line of the
cliff, and placing the end of one leg of the tripod
in a convenient crevice, and the other two through
a belt or piece of rope round his waist, he
focusses, and generally after a deal of trouble suc-
ceeds in making a picture. That of the young
Peregrine Falcons on page 337 was obtained in this
way.

Although not particularly dangerous, if carried
out with care and proper tools, cliff work of any
kind requires a man with a cool head and a strong
athletic frame. Most of the danger, as I have
already mentioned, comes from the attendant at
the crowbar. On one occasion my brother had
a very narrow escape from death owing to the
fellow who was lowering him neglecting his work
to chat with some companions who stood near. The

342

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

crowbar had not been driven far into the ground,
on account of its rocky nature, and just as his head
was about to disappear below the edge of the cliff,
he happened to look up at it, and was horrified
to see the rope running round its top instead of
its bottom, and the whole thing so bent over by
the leverage of his weight, that, instead of inclin-
ing away from him, it was pointing almost straight
over his head. A frantic yell brought the careless

rascal to his senses, or
in another instant the
crowbar would have been
pulled out of the ground
and the rope jerked
from his hands. Some
attendants have a repre-
hensible knack of trying
to look over the cliff at
the descending photo-
grapher whilst they mani-
pulate the rope, which is
by no means reassuring
to the man below.
It has, however, its humorous side, for one day
on the Irish coast my brother and a friend were
caught by the tide and imprisoned in a cave they
had stayed too long to investigate. My brother
essayed an extremely difficult and dangerous climb
to get out and procure assistance. When he had
accomplished about half of his perilous task, he
observed the end of a rope gliding down over
the face of the cliff towards the mouth of the
cave. The coachman, and an assistant whose ser-
vices had been requisitioned for the day, had
grasped the situation and were lowering the means
of rescue.

CARRION CROW'S NEST.

PHOTOGRAPHING A NEST IN A TREE.

344 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

When the end of the rope reached the prisoner
in the cave, he was afraid to entrust himself to it,
lest it should not be properly secured at the top.
As soon as my brother reached the summit of the
cliff, however, he found it twisted round a huge
boulder of rock weighing many tons, and in ad-
dition held by eight stalwart Irish labourers, who
had been called from their work to assist.

Nests built near the tops of high isolated trees
are often very difficult to photograph, on account
of the fact that they are situated amongst slender
branches. That of the Carrion Crow comes under
this category, as the bird loves a site which com-
mands a good view of her surroundings in order
that she may have early intimation of the approach
of danger, and make good her escape. Another
feature of this bird's nest is that it is extremely
deep, thus preventing her eggs from rolling out
when the structure is roughly swayed to and fro
by a gale of wind, and at the same time neces-
sitating the photographer, who would show them
in a picture, getting well above it to make his
study.

In the early part of March, 1896, we examined
an old nest belonging to this species in an^ isolated
tree growing in a meadow not far from where we
live; and as the owner had begun to clean it out
and repair it, amongst other things with green
honeysuckle, and it was very awkwardly situated
for photographic purposes, we removed it, thinking
that the bird would go to another and more suit-
able tree in the neighbourhood.

Our molestation did not, however, interfere
with her affection for the situation, and she
speedily laid the foundation sticks of a new nest
close by where the old one had stood. The third

SPARROW-HAWK'S NEST AND YOUNa

34& WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

or fourth day after she had commenced this she
changed her mind, probably discovering that the
twigs would not bear the weight of her new home,
and began to work at a fresh one a yard or two
away upon stouter branches. In a very short time
she had entirely used up the materials from the
forsaken site, and a week after the completion of
her last effort it contained four eggs, which we
discovered by means of our bit of looking-glass on
the end of a rod.

As we were anxious to make a photograph
showing the eggs in the nest, and it was impos-
sible to do so without fixing something up to
enable us to get above it, we borrowed a twenty-
foot ladder from a friendly farmer. It will be seen
from the illustration on page 343 — which is from
a photograph kindly taken for us by our friend,
Mr. J. H. Powell, of Balham — that the ladder is
as nearly perpendicular as may be. This was the
only position possible, because the branches to
which we lashed it would have snapped like
matches through the leverage produced by our
combined weight if it had been placed at any
angle. When the legs of the tripod had been
lashed to the ladder, and the camera focussed, my
brother's next difficulty was to get his dark slide
in and the plate exposed without interfering with
the precise adjustment of the apparatus. In order
to accomplish these feats, he was obliged to hold
on to one of the rungs of the ladder with his
teeth and thus leave his hands free to work with.

Another difficulty now presented itself. The
branches upon which the nest was resting, and the
slender twigs around it, would not keep still, and,
incredible as it may seem, each pulse-beat taking
place in our bodies was distinctly indicated by them.

348

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

In the case of a nest which can be photo-
graphed from a neighbouring tree, my brother
ascends, and having selected a position from which
he can get a good view, drops one end of a rope
to me upon the ground, and I tie his apparatus to
it. He then hauls it up, and lashing the tripod to
the handiest branches, he makes his picture.

The illustration
on page 345 was ob-
tained in this way,
and the ascent nearly
resulted in a serious
accident, from the
snapping of a rotten
branch.

Once or twice
we have met with
nests far out upon
a branch, and as
they could not be
photographed either
from the tree in
which they were
situated or any sur-
rounding ones, we
have, with the assist-
ance of several strong men, hoisted a tall ladder
into a perpendicular position near the nest,
and fixed it with guide ropes tied to adjoining
trees. My brother has then mounted to the top,
or as far up as was necessary, and done his work.
The group of Cormorants on page 251 was
obtained in a rather curious manner. My brother
and our friend, Mr. R. J. Ussher, an enthusiastic
Irish ornithologist, were staying for a few days
on the Saltee Islands already mentioned, and as

SWALLOWS ON TELEGRAPH WIRE..

METHOD OF PHOTOGRAPHING BIRDS' NESTS SITUATED IN HIGH HEDGEa

350 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

they had no boat and the birds were breeding- on a
detached rock between twenty and thirty yards
away, he conceived the notion of swimming over
to them with a rope round his neck and then haul-
ing his apparatus across after him. His first attempt
to swim the channel was attended by a rather nasty
accident. He had the misfortune to get his legs
entangled in some seaweed, and before he could
extricate himself a breaker hurled him back against
the rocks, from which he had just started, with
such force that he was badly bruised, scratched,
and cut. In spite of his hurts, however, he struck
out again, and eventually succeeded in reaching the
Cormorants' crag, with the blood trickling down
both legs, to the great alarm of his companion.
The rocks on either side of the channel being a
good height above the waves, enabled them to get
the camera across on the rope without anything
touching the water except the legs of the tripod.

The picture on page 348 of a pair of Swallows
on a telegraph wire was obtained by rearing a
long ladder against one of the interior walls of a
lofty barn and putting the front of the camera
through a ventilator. At the foot of the ladder a
chained bull was praying all the while in a deep
bass voice that some unlucky slip might deliver the
photographer and his bit of mahogany and brass
over to his untender mercies.

We have succeeded in making some very good
photographs from boats, but such pictures require
a good light and a rapid exposure, on account of
the difficulty of keeping any craft in the water
absolutely still. In the case of such nests or other
objects as are photographically unapproachable ex-
cept from a boat, and circumstances render a time
exposure imperative, we take soundings of the

WATER VOLE.

352

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

depth of water between the vessel and the subject
to be pictured, and then lash stout sticks of suit-
able length to the legs of the tripod and lower
the whole overboard.

Where a boat cannot be requisitioned, and the
stream or lake is not too deep, the photographer
walks into the water and does his work, as shown

niiifi ill!

r • •

SPARROWS AND CHAFFINCHES ON THE SNOW.

in our illustration on page 347 of my brother in the
act of picturing the nesting hole of a Kingfisher.

Many birds' nests situated in tall hedges and
bushes give the photographer a great deal of
trouble, on account of their elevation making it
difficult to procure a good view of the eggs or
young. We get over inconveniences of this kind
by mounting the tripod on improvised stilts cut from
any suitable sticks growing handy, and my brother
focussing from my shoulders, as shown in the some-
what odd-looking illustration on page 349.

354 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

Such wild animals as Rabbits, Hedgehogs, and
Voles require very patient waiting for, with the
camera well hidden. We cover ours with a green
focussing cloth, which has each of its four corners
weighted with gunshot to prevent it from flapping
in a breeze, and then hide the front with bushes,
taking care, however, that no drooping leaf stands
a chance of interposing itself between the lens and
the object to be photographed. My brother then
lies up at a convenient distance with the binoculars,
and waits until the object he desires to photograph
comes within the field of focus, and exposes his
plate by a squeeze of the air-ball at the end of
the pneumatic tube controlling his silent shutter.

Birds on their nests feeding their young, and
at rest in their natural haunts, are photographed
in a similar manner.

The great secret of all field work is the power to
keep absolutely still for a prolonged period of
time. I have stood like a statue in a perfectly
exposed place beside a small cattle pond for half
an hour on a calm summer's evening, and had five
Rabbits, four Voles, and two or three common
Brown Rats within a dozen yards of me fighting,
feeding, swimming, and playing with the utmost
unconcern, until I stirred, when they all disappeared
as if by magic. My brother waited a whole day
for the picture of the Vole on page 351, and
so confiding did the little animal become towards
evening that it hopped up to him and smelt his
boots, and even hid itself beneath his legs, as he
sat with his knees drawn up in a high clump of
thistles, upon the approach of a man who happened
to be passing the pond in the banks of which it
lived. Most birds are as frightened of the Cyclops-
looking lens of a camera as they are of a human

A SURREY KINGFISHER. 355

being, and it is only its absolute stillness that re-
assures them. I have seen many a one hop close
round the back of our hidden apparatus a long
while before it dared go to its nest, with the
awful eye on it in front.

When snow is on the ground in winter, we feed
the birds in our garden, and then photograph them
with the apparatus hidden beneath the ample folds
of a white sheet or large table cloth."

Last winter, when all the streams in Surrey
were swollen and muddy, a Kingfisher found its
way almost daily into a garden belonging to a
friend of ours living in the neighbourhood of
Redhill, and containing a pond in which a number
of goldfish were kept. The bird used to come
and sit on a little ash sapling sprouting from the
left hand bank of the pond, as seen from our
friend's house, or upon the trailing boughs of a
tree overhanging the right bank, and, whenever a
fish swam within its ken, it made a swift down-
ward plunge into the water, and, securing its prey,
flew with it to one or the other of its favourite
perches. The unfortunate victim quickly received
its quietus by a few vigorous blows on the branch,
and was then swallowed head foremost.

Hearing of the bird's visits, my brother was
very anxious to try to photograph it, and a re-
sourceful friend of ours cut a round hole in the
side of a large wooden box, which he placed
on a gravel path some distance from the ash
sapling, moving it a little closer each day, in order
that by degrees the bird might get accustomed to
its presence. He next fixed an old door up in
such a position as to hide from the Kingfisher the
approach of anyone leaving a French window at
the end of the house, and carpeted the gravel path

356 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

thickly with old sacks, so that the bird might not
hear the crunching of the photographer's feet upon
it when he approached.

My brother went down, and, placing his camera
in the box, focussed the favourite twig through the
hole our friend had cut, brought his pneumatic
tubing behind the door, and retired to wait in our
friend's sitting-room, which commanded a good
view of the pond. As the bird only came three
or four times a day, and did not stay long on any
occasion, no opportunities were to be lost, and
while photographic light lasted he kept constant
watch, even having some of his meals brought to
him, for fear of missing a chance. Six days spent
more or less in patient waiting and watching re-
sulted in his obtaining a series of studies, one of
which is reproduced on the opposite page.

We have suffered a few minor accidents result-
ing in sundry bumps and sore bones, and the
smashing of our apparatus, but nothing of a serious
character.

On one occasion my brother reared a ladder
against the trunk of a tree which was too thick
to swarm, with the idea of getting amongst the
branches by its aid. He had nearly reached the
top, when one side of the contrivance suddenly
snapped with a loud crack about a yard from its
upper end, and three or four rungs flew high in
the air as if cast by a juggler. The climber's
head came in violent contact with the tree, and,
losing his footing and balance at the same time,
he spun half round and fell, but in passing what
remained of the ladder he snatched at it from
beneath, and, arresting his descent, swung himself
back again, and thus, by a gymnastic feat, averted
what might have proved a nasty accident.

I

358 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

Last spring we were trying to photograph a
Wild Duck sitting on her nest in a steep bank
leading down to a pond eight feet deep. She
could only be approached from the front, so we
procured a couple of wooden trestles and a long
ladder, and interlocking the former, pushed them
out beneath the latter. My brother then walked
along the ladder, and with the assistance of sundry
sticks managed to fix up his camera. Just as he
was about to make a picture, the trestles slipped, and
photographer and camera fell with a tremendous
splash into the pond, and the startled Duck flew
away in a hurry.

One of the great difficulties connected with
natural history photography is the recharging of
dark slides, and we have more than once had a
valuable batch of plates fogged in doing so by
means of a changing bag. At the outset of my
brother's photographic career, he one day, whilst
on the moors in North Yorkshire, conceived
the idea of crawling far enough up a disused lead-
mine to meet with darkness sufficiently dense for
his purpose, as he had forgotten his changing
bag. Just as he was congratulating himself upon
having reached a point suitable for his purpose, he
fell head over heels into an old shaft full of icy
cold water.

We have essayed the portrayal of winged
insects at work and play, but found it an even
more difficult and tedious task than that of making
photographic studies of wild birds and beasts in
their native haunts. One sunny day, whilst out
hunting for subjects for the camera on a friend's
farm, we discovered a couple of large Dragon-flies
floating backwards and forwards across a cattle
pond. We watched their airy swingings to and

PHOTOGRAPHING INSECTS. 359

fro for a while, and noticed that one of them,
after an angry collision with its neighbour,
invariably alighted upon a favourite grass stem.
My brother waded into the pond and focussed it,
but the insect immediately took a fancy to another
a few feet away, and constantly patronised it instead
of the one originally used as a resting-place. The
camera was shifted, but we soon discovered that
when the Dragon-fly alighted upon the slender
grass stem, it bent sufficiently with the weight to
take the insect out of focus. After half a day's
patient work, however, we succeeded in making a
successful picture.

On another occasion we were shown a Wasps'
nest suspended under an overhanging bank. My
brother fixed up his camera at a respectful distance
and took a photograph with some of its occupants
walking over it. Anxious to make a study at
closer quarters, he crept stealthily up, focussed,
inserted a dark slide, and was just about to expose
a plate, when by an unlucky accident he touched
a rootlet, which made the nest vibrate, and out
poured an angry crowd of insects upon him, and
he was obliged to beat a very hasty retreat
minus his camera.

A year or two ago I read an account of a
Golden-crested Wren having been caught in a
Spider's web, but must confess that I doubted the
ability of any creature of this kind in the British
Isles to make a web strong enough to hold even
our smallest bird.

Last year I caught a member of the species
represented in the picture on the next page, and
kept him under a glass globe for some weeks. He
made a web right across it, and I cut a piece of
cardboard exactly an inch square and, inserting it

360 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

so that it caught the web flat, I then attached
a spring balance and began to pull steadily. To
my great surprise, although it was only fixed to
the smooth glass on either side and had a span
of ten inches, it sustained a strain of over four
ounces, avoirdupois, before giving way.

SPIDER'S SNARE.

INDEX.

Accident, Curious, to a Moorhen, 228

Laughable, 66

Remarkable, to a Chaffinch, 184

Whilst Swimming to a Rock to Photo-
graph Cormorants, 359
Accidents, Climbing, 124

Minor, 356

to Young Rabbits, 180

Adder, Photographing an, 140
Adventure, Tale of, 134
Ailsa Craig, Puffins on, 268

„ Very Early Morning Visit to, 322-

326

Alarm, False, 38
Animals, Differences in, 238

Wild, Photographing, 354

Ankle, Development of Cliff-climber's, 44
Apartment, Old Maid's, at St. Kilda, 34
Apparatus, Our Photographic, 334
Architecture of Birds' Nests, 183

Bagpipes, Effect of, on St. Kildans, 37
Bass Rock, How to reach, 265
Beards of St. Kilda Men, 32
Becking for Grouse, 160, 163
Bees never seen at St. Kilda, 128
Bell on the Neck of a Goose, 156
Bible, Grace Darling's, 332
Biorrach, 124

Bird-catcher, Immortalising a, 281
catchers' Call-Birds, 278

„ Care for their Birds, 282

„ How they Work, 278

„ Lure Birds, 280

„ Plant, 282

-catching an Inherited Instinct, 294

„ Places, Favourite, round

Brighton, 286

Change of Habits in, 292

Island, A Famous, 313

. Life in the Firth of Lome, 321

Lime, Species caught by, 288

Male, Feeding Young, alone, 230

Mistaking Rising of Moon for Sun, 246

Birds and Spare Nests, 186

Call -Notes of, 281

Caught on Nests, 198

Difficulties of Photographing at Night-
time, 247

Different Species sharing Nest, 194

Eggs and Young, Protection of, 207

Enemies of, 207

Exchanging, 207

How Laid, 205

Show of, in Windows at St. Kilda, 12

Sharing, at St. Kilda, 53

Experimenting with, on Wire Perches, 232

Extravagance of, 192

Feeding their Young, 214, 216, 229

Frightened of a Camera, 354

Great Flights of, 284

„ Numbers of, at Borrera, 75-76

Helping them to build their Nests, etc.,

216

| Birds, How prevented from falling off Peruh
when asleep, 231

,, the Presence of Brooding Game,

may be known, 198

„ they are called, 278

„ they keep warm whilst sleeping,

232

„ they sit on their Nests, 198

Love of an old Breeding Haunt, 138

Male, that feed their Mates, 202

Migration of, 289

Nests, Eggs, and Young of, 183

,, near London, 222

„ Photographing in High Hedges,

352

Nets used for catching, 276

Not so particular as supposed about

Nests and Eggs, 206

of Prey, Gamekeepers on killing, 142

on Brighton Downs, 274

Photographing in the Snow, 355

Predominating Sex in, 241

Protection of Young, by Harmonisation

210

Sanitary Arrangements of, 218

Seen at St. Kilda, 57

Singing at Night, 246

Sleeping habits of, 233-235, 245, 246

„ together, 239

Stealing each others' Nests, 189

Trapping, 290

Unwearying Devotion of, 196

Vast Multitude of, 122

Watching Shy, 212

When they retire to sleep, 245

• Where they go to die, 234

„ „ sleep, 231

Wings on Midden Heaps, 12

Young, killed by Rooks, 146

Blackbird, Curious Eggs of a, 205
Blackbirds feeding their Young, 213

Nests well and badly hidden, 188

Peculiar Positions of Nests of,

264

Where they sleep, 234

Boat, Curious Old Method of landing from,

123
Dangerous leap into, 121

Difficulties of hiring a, 320

Hauling, Curious Custom of, 43

Keels wearing Grooves in Rocks, 44

Race, St. Kilda as a Prize for, 16

Boats lowered, 131

Photographing from, 350

Bonnet, Highland Woman's, 321

Boots, How a Highland Woman wears her,

321
Borrera, Difficulties of landing on, 76, 77

Excursion to, 75

Scaling the Cliffs of, 78

Sheep killed on, 87

Stone Lamp on, 81

Underground Dwellings on, 81, 82

Breakfasting off Guillemots' Eggs, 323

362

INDEX.

Breeches, Strange Story of a Pair of, 123
Brighton as a starting and arriving Place

for Migratory Birds, 289
Downs, Bird-life on, 285

,, Cage-Birds on, 274

First Ktm of Motor Cars to, 275

When Migratory Birds arrive at, in

the Spring, 292

Brooches, Peculiar, at St. Kilda, 19
Bullet-hole, Spotted Flycatcher's Nest in, 196
Bullfinches, Close Sitters, 200

How they are caught, 285

Burrows, or " Nests," of Rabbits, 180

Petrels, 244

Habits of, 148

How Trapped, 148

Cage Birds, Big Catches of, 281
Calling, 278

How they are caught, 274
Ground on which caught, 286
on Brighton Downs, 274
Where they are sold, 286

for receiving Newly-Caught Birds, 282

Call Birds, Value of, 281

Notes of Birds, 281

Calling Cage Birds, 278

Grouse, 160

Partridges, 171

Camera and Photographer falling into a Pond,
358

Birds frightened of a, 354

Cats, Chance spoilt by, 101

Destructiveness of, 152

How trapped, 152

Ingenious Trap for, 153

Cattle, Stock of, at St. Kilda, 38

Cave, Bird-haunted, 314

Chaffinch, Abnormal Blue Eggs of, 205

Curious behaviour of, 199

Devotion of, 199

Remarkable Accident to, 184

Song of, 289

Chaffinches, Character of Nests of, 183

How they are caught, 288

Nest decorated with Bits of News-
paper, 184

Simultaneous Nest-Building of, 184

Where they Sleep, 234

Chanticleer, Frostbitten, 233

Characteristics of Gamekeepers, 135

Charging Bag, Using an Old Lead Mine as, 358

Cheese, St. Kilda, 39

Chiffcliaff, Helping, to Feed her Young, 220

How She fed her Young, 216

Child's Life saved by a Homer Pigeon, 324

Cleits of St. Kilda, 46

Cliff-climbers, St. Kildans as, 57

Climbing, Sensations of, 56

How to descend, 338

Important Points in regard to descend-
ing, 340

Photography, Dangers of, 341

,, How it is Managed, 341

Sensations of descending, 341

Terrible Fall from, 126

Cliffs of Borrera, Scaling the, 78

Climb, Difficult, 108

Hazardous, 323

Stiff and Dangerous, 87

Stiffest and Most Dangerous, in St.

Kilda, 124

Climbing Accidents, 124

Clipping Shears unknown in St. Kilda, 41

Clock Chiming, Man who could not under-
stand, 327

Collection Boxes, Curious, at St. Kilda, 10

Coloration, Protective, Value of, 252

„ Puzzle about, 254

Commonwealth of St. Kilda, 53

Complexion of St. Kildans, 48

Cormorant, Stalking, 249

Cormorants at Fame Islands, 248

Lesser Black-backed Gulls stealing

Fish from, 250

Poisonousness of Excreta of, 249

Swimming to a Rock for a Photo-
graph of, 348-350

Courage, The Evaporation of a Gillie's, 318

Cow, Milking, Aboard Ship, 311

Crow, Carrion, Nesting Site of, 344

Grey, Killing, 101

Crows, Carrion, frightened by Jubilee Beacon
Fires, 234

Crusoe, Modern, 134

Cuckoo considered a Messenger of Death at
St. Kilda, 128

Curious Sleeping Quarters of, 240

Early Morning Cry of, 133

Cuckoos, How they put their Eggs in other
Birds' Nests, 26

Curlew, Instincts of, 210

Powerful Notes of, 212

Danger, Curious Effect of, 98
Dangers of Cliff Photography, 341

Photographing in Trees, 348

Darling, Robert, and the Fame Islands, 330
Death Dirge, Singing a, 34

Cuckoo considered a Messenger of, 128

Degeneracy, Physical, of Man, 32

Debate, Heated, 120

Decoy Pipe, Description of, 296, etc.

„ How cleared of Ice, 304

Decoying, Art of, 295

Essentials of Successful, 296

How it is done, 305

Decoyman and his Dog at work, 308

Good-natured, 309

Slaying his Captives, 309

Decoyman's Dog, 296

Notions, 309

Decoymen, Mistakes made by, 305
Descending a Cliff, Important Points in regard

to, 340

,, Sensations of, 341

Descent, Dangerous and Difficult, 120
Devotion of Birds, 196

„ Chaffinch, 199

,, Sparrow-hawk, 202

,, Tree-creeper, 199

Dignity of St. Kildans, 51
Disciplinarian, Strict, 330
Dishonesty of Birds, 189
Diver, Great Northern, 24

Red-throated, on Nest, 318

Diving into a Boat, 121

Dog, Decoyman's, 296

Favourite, 157

Good Chance spoilt by, 108

Swallowing Frogs, 152

Temper of, 158

Dogs, Mischief wrought by, 152

of St. Kilda, 6

Doon and St. Kilda, 60

Caves under, 98

Down used in Lining Ducks' Nests, 260

Drink, Big, 43

Drowning, Narrow Escape from, 96

Duck Decoy, the First, constructed in

England, 295

Worked under Difficulties, 295
Ducks, Clutches of Eggs of, 260
— Eider, at Fame Islands, 258

Lure, 296 ; how fed, 304

Nests, Down employed in lining of,

260

Young Eider, Hardihood of, 261 ; how

they breast big Seas, 262 ; swallowed
by Lesser Black-backed Gull, 262

INDEX.

Dunlins at St. Kilda, 59 ; feeding, 60
Dwellings, Underground, at St. Kilda, 13 ; on
Borrera, 82

Eagle, Golden, Shyness of, 138
Earthenware, Fragments of Old, 14
Egg, Colour of Common Guillemot's, 106

• Sea Birds that lay only One, 120

• JRtealers, Jackdaws as, 257

Eggs, Clutches of Eider Ducks', 260

Coloration, 204

Destruction of, 189

Distribution of Heat over, 206

Enemies of, 207

. Exchanging, 207

Fastidiousness of Plovers in regard to

the Position of, 206

— Great Numbers gathered at St. Kilda,

119

Gulls', collected at Scoulton Mere, 273

How Birds lay, 205

Large Clutches of Terns', 254

of Eider Ducks, 73

of Wrens, 72

Osprey's, 194

Painted, 204

Pheasants', 164

„ Variation in Colour of, 166

Protection of, by Harmonisation of

Colour, 207, 254

Stolen by Rooks, 146

Tree Sparrow's, 204

Eider Ducks at St Kilda, 128

„ Eggs of, 73

" Eight-Day Sickness " at St. Kilda, 33
Embarkation, Difficulties of. at St. Kilda, 63
Escape, Narrow, 104
Etiquette at St. Kilda, 27

Falcon (see Peregrine)

Falling into a Shaft Full of Water, 358

Farewell Meeting, A, 128

Fame Islands and Robert Darling, 330

„ Cormorants at, 248

„ Eider Ducks at, 258

„ Guillemots at, 264

„ in a Rough Sea off the, 333

„ Kittiwakes at, 264

„ Rabbits on, 332

„ Terns breeding at, 250

Feat, A Good Gymnastic, 356

Feathers, How disposed during Sleep, 232

. from St. Kilda for Soldiers' Pillows,

119

Fecundity of Rabbits, 180
Feet, Large, of Young Razorbill, 105
Ferrets killing each other, 182
Fergusson descends a Fearful Precipice, 86
Field Work, Secret of, 354
Fieldfares, Where they sleep, 247
Fight between a Pair of Black Guillemots,

61

Fire-penny Tax at St. Kilda, 54
Fish, A Big Catch of, 67, 68, 99

for Bait, 99

Stolen from Cormorants by Gulls, 250

Fleas on a Rabbit, 181

Flight Netting, How it is managed, 284

Flights, Great Winter, 284

Flycatcher, Spotted, Habits of, 224

Flycatcher's, Spotted, Nest, 223 ; in a Bullet-
Hole, 196

Fog, Steaming in a, 130

Food-supply of St. Kildans compared with
that of Hebridean Crofters, 9

Forked-tailed Petrels' Nests, 64, 78

. „ ,, Squirting Oil, 80

Fowler, Sad Fate of, 118

Fowling, An Exhibition of, 64

Ropes, 124

Fowls, Domestic, Small Esteem for, at St

Kilda, 48
Fox, Cunning of, 156

Fate of a Trapped, 154

Trap, A Curious, 153, 154

Friends, Parting with, 129
Fright, A Great, 173
Fuel used at St. Kilda, 46
Fulmar Petrel, Breeding habits of, 116, 118
Catch of, on Borrera, 84

Curious Differences of Opinion
of the Value of, 118

Egg of, 62

Feathers from, 119

Flight of, 3

Habits of, 60

Macgillivray's Observations
on, 116

Oil from, 119
„ Smell of, 12, 119

Photographing, 108, 115

Quantity of Oil from, 119

Sense of Smell of, 62

Sighting First, 3

Stalking, 108

Gamekeeper, A much scarred, 170

An Essex, 328

The Humour of a, 177

Gamekeepers and Hawks, 141, 142

Characteristics of. 135

Dangers of, 330

Duties of, 150

Hard Life of, 168

Method of killing Ravens, 241

on killing Birds of Prey, 142

Gannets on Stack Lee, 76

' Plunging, 3 (see also Solan Geese)

Geese, Wild, Finding a Brood of, 318

Generosity of St. Kildans, 52

Gillie's Courage, A, 318

Gnats, Punished by, 226

Gold, Contemning, 51

Goose, Bell hung to the Neck of, 156

Grace Darling's Bible, 332

Graveyard at St. Kilda, 44

Greed of St. Kildans, 49

Ground on which Cage-birds are caught, 286

Grouse, A Close Sitter, 150, 198

Alarm Notes of, 162

Becking for, 160

Curious Habits of, 162

., Position of the Nest of a, 150

of, stolen by Rooks, 146
of Starvation on, 163

Fascinations of Driving, 148

Harm done to, by Farmers' Cats, 152

How poached, 156, 160

Method of calling, 160

Netting, 157

Notes of, 160

Only Bird Indigenous to British Isles

148

Roosting in Trees, 164

Shooting, 164

Sitting long and close on Nest, 198

Snaring, 156, 158

Starved to Death, 164

Talkativeness of, 162

Weight of, 164

Gulf Stream, Bountifulness of, 46

„ Fetches a disappointment to

St. Kilda, 47

Guillemot, Black, Notes of, Fighting, etc., 61
Common, at Fame Islands, 264

„ Breakfasting off Eggs of,

323

„ Clever Capture of, 108

„ Colour of Eggs of, 106

364

INDEX.

Guillemot, Common, How caught by Night, 92

„ Round Borrera, 76

Gull, Lesser Black Back, swallowing Young

Eiders, 262
Gulls, Black-headed, at Scoulton Mere, 272

Curious Position of a Great Black

Back's Nest, 2
Great Black Back, and Prey, 59

„ „ „ at St. Kilda, 58, 100

Gulls, Herring feeding, 101

Met with in Hebrides, 272

Robbing Terns, 258

Stealing Fish from Cormorants, 250

Where they sleep, 242

Gymnastic Feat, A Good, 356

Habits, Breeding, of Fulmar Petrel, 60

„ Rabbits, 1V7

„ Starlings, 184

Change of, in Ring-Ouzels, 292

Curious, of Hares, 176

of Blue Tit, 224

„ Hedgehogs, 146

„ Marsh Tits, 220

„ Peewit, 212

„ Plovers, etc., 210

„ Spotted Flycatcher, 224

Peculiar, of Shelduck, 264

Hair Rope, 124

Hammock, A Fall from, 9
Hare, Childlike Cry of, 17*

How netted, 174, 175

Netting, 173

Poached, for Sale, 172

Shot by Moonlight, 176

Trying to Trap, 177

Hares, Curious Habits of, 176

Love of Parsley, 177

Harmonisation of Birds' Eggs and Young with

Surroundings, 207, 210
Haunted Room, Sleeping in, 332
Hawks and Gamekeepers, 141, 142
Head-dress of St. Kilda Women, 2°
Hearthrug used as a Shawl, 22
Hebrides, Gulls met with in, 272
Hedgehogs, Habits of, 146
Heron considered a Witch at St. Kilda, 128

Rook stealing Sticks from, 190

Highland Boat, Passengers on, 311
. Peat-Diggers, 319

Woman's Boots and Bonnet, 321

Workmen and their Master, 313, 314

Highlanders, Heartfelt Prayers of, 320
Highlands, Teetotalers' difficulties in, 318
Home, Love of, 49

Horsehair Rope, 124
Horticulturists, A Hard Nut for, 24
House, Highest Inhabited, in Yorkshire, 327

Strong Man's, in St. Kilda, 82

Humorous Incident, 342

Humouring an Old Man in Power, 314

Hybrids, 285

Identity, Two Peculiar Cases of Mistaken, 42
Illumination, History of, at St. Kilda, 23
Incident, Humorous, 342
Inn, Highest, in England, 327
Insects, Photographing, 359
Instinct in Animals, 238
Intelligence, Difficulties of obtaining Up-to-
date, 326

Rewarded, 133

Intoxication mistaken for Death, 35
Irish Skipper, Hospitality of, 50
Isolation of St. Kilda, 28

Jackdaws as Egg-Stealers, 257
Jay feeding her Young, 224
Jay's Nest, 224
"Jug," How Partridges, 170

Kestrel, Destructiveness of, 142
- Laziness of, 192

Kestrel's Eggs in Raven's Old Nest, 193
Kingfisher, How it captures its Prey, 356
Photographing, 355

Kittiwakes at Fame Islands, 264

Dead, 3

on their Nests, 98

Rising of, 100

Where they sleep, 242

Ladies, Bravery of, 132
Lady Grange's Exile, 28
Landlord, A Merry Old, 327
Lamp, Stone, still used, 14, 23

„ on Borrera 81

Larks decreasing in Scotland, 284

Great Slaughter of, 284

How caught by Night, 286

Vast Flocks of, 284

Lead-mine, Using an Old, as a Charging Bag,

358

Leap, A Dangerous, 87, 121
Letters from St. Kilda, 29
Light, Cost of, at St. Kilda, 54

Night at St. Kilda, 100

Liquor, Limited Consumption of, 327
Locks, Curious Wooden, 12
London "a grand spot," 328

Birds' Nests near, 222

Lome, Bird-life in the Firth of, 321

" Lover's Stone," St. Kilda, 37

Lunatic, Threatened by a, 99

Lunch, A Dry, 321

Lure Birds, How tethered and how they

work, 280

Macgillivray's Observations on the Fulmar

Petrel, 116

Mackenzie's Equanimity, 26
Mailboat, St. Kilda, 28
Malady, An Old, 33

McQuien, Finlay, inquires about London, 82
Markets for Cage-birds, 286
Marriages, Early, at St. Kilda, 37
Marsh Tits, How they feed their Young, 220
Martin's First Experience of Gannets, 88

Fulmar Petrel, 116, 119

Curious Breeches Story, 123

Martins, House, Nests, 188

„ Late Stay of, 274

Sand, Nests, 188

Meeting, A Farewell, 128

Men, Clever or Cowardly, 132

Merlin's Nest, 141

Message from the Sea, 5

Mice utilising Old Birds' Nests, 192

Migration of Birds, 289, 292

Milking a Highland Cow on board ship, 311

Minister and Medicine Man, 33

Ministers as Promise-Breakers, 324

Mistaken Identity, 42

Mistakes of Decoy-men, 305

Moorhen, Curious Accident to, 228

Spare Nest of, 186

Mortality amongst Babes at St. Kilda. 33

,, Sea-Birds, 258

Moth, Photographing a, 247

Motor Cars, First Run to Brighton of, 275
Music of the Bagpipes, 37

of St. Kildans, 36

Natural History, Increasing Interest in, 194

Nature, How to study, 334

Negatives Rush to save, 131

Nerves, Effect of Danger on, 98

Nest, Accident to a Bird whilst building, 184

Birds sharing a, 194

Building of Solan Geese, 266

Common Wren's, 184, 186

INDEX.

365

Nest, Curious lining of an Oyster-catcher's, 193

„ Position of a Grouse's, 150

„ ,, of a Spotted Fly-

catcher's, 196

„ Situations for a Pied Wagtail's,

196, 228

Decoration of a Chaffinch's, 184

High Situation of a Swallow's, 328

How a Rabbit hides its, 177, 180

Jay's, 224

Kestrel's Eggs in Raven's, 193

Merlin's, 141

Moving a Gray Wagtail's, 200

of St. Kilda Wren, 71

Ospreys, 194

Peculiar Position of a Blackbird's, 264

Photographing a Shrike on, 200

Rook stealing Sticks from a Heron's, 190

Wood Wren's, 223, 224

Nesting-Box, Story of a, 189
Nesting-places, Curious, 196
Nests, Adaptation of Old, 192

Blue Tit's, 223

" Cock's," of Common Wren, 186

• Down-lining of Ducks', 260

Extravagance in building, 192

Forked- tailed Petrel's, 64

House Martin's, 188

How Birds sit on their, 198

near London, 222

Old, Adapted by Kestrel, 192

Photographing, in High Hedges, 352

,, in Trees, 344, 346, 348

Poor accommodation of some, 206

Robins', in Curious Situations, 196

Rooks stealing Sticks from each

others, 190

Sand Martins', 188

Simultaneous building of, 184

Spare, 186

Sparrow's, stolen by Starlings, 190

Spotted Flycatcher's, 223

Variation of Size of, 188

Waterhen's Spare, 186

Well and badly hidden, 188

Nets, Clap, How worked, 281

Used for catching Birds, 276

Netting a Hare, 173, 174, 175

Newspaper Reporters, Disappointment of. 5

Night in a Cleit, 99

on Deck, 133

Nightingales, Trapping of, 290

Southern Flight of, 292

Nightjar, Sleeping habit of. 245
Nurse, Brave, 132
Notes of Curlew, 212

of Roseate Tern, 256

Notion, Curious, in Regard to Photography,
326

Oar, Broken, 122

Oban, Early Morning Wait at, 133
Offering My Brother for Sale, 49
Oil from a Dead Whale, 46

Squirted by Forked-tailed Petrels, 80 ; by

Fulmar Petrel, 115, 119
Ornithologists, Startler for, 24
Orphans, How cared for at St. Kilda, 53
Ospreys at Home, 194
Owl carrying its Prey, 245

mobbed by Small Birds, 245

Photographing, by Flashlight, 244

Procuring Food by Day, 244

Owls, Where they Sleep, 244
Oyster-catcher's Nest, Curious lining of an,
193

Paradise of British Ornithologists, 1
Parliament, St. Kilda, 53
Parsley, Hare's Love of, 177

Parting with Friends, 129
Passengers on a Highland Boat 311
Partridges, Call-Notes of, 172

Curious Temper of, 170

Poaching of, 171

Protection of, 171

"Jugging" of, 170

Paying People to Photograph them, 50
Peat-Diggers, 319
Peewit, Habits of, 212
Perches of Sleeping Birds, 232
Peregrine, Keeping a, oft' Her Eggs, 138

• Notes of, 136

• Robbing Terns, 258

• Story of, 138

Trying to shoot, 136

Wing- Power of, 138

Peregrine's Love of an Old Breeding Haunt.

138

Peregrines, Trying to shoot a Pair of, 141
Petrels, Breeding Burrows and Habits of, 244

Fulmar (see Fulmar Petrel)

Pheasant-Breeding, 164, 166

Pheasants, Eggs of, stolen by Rooks, 146

,, Variation in Colour of, 166

Favourite Roost, 240

Great theft of Young 168

How Young are reared, 168

Where they sleep, 247

Young, and Hawks, 142

Photograph of Cormorants, Swimming for, 348
Photographer and Camera falling into a
Pond, 358

Falling through a Floor, 8

Photographic Apparatus, Our, 334
Photographing Adder, 140

Birds by Night, Difficulties of, 247

Birds' Nests in High Hedges, 352

Birds on Snow, 355

• Blackbirds' feeding their Young, 213

from Boats, 350

Fulmar Petrel, 108, 115

Gray Wagtail on her Nest, 200

Insects, 358

in Water, 352

Jay feeding her Young, 224

Kingfisher, 355

Moth by Flashlight, 247

Nests in Trees, 344

„ „ Dangers and Difficulties

of, 346, 348

Owl by Flashlight, 244

St. Kilda Wren, 74

„ Wren's Nest by Reflected

Light, 75

Shrike on her Nest, 200

Solan Geese, Danger of, 2t>»

Swallows by Flashlight, 240

,, on Telegraph Wire, 350

Thrush at Roost, 234

under Difficulties, 110

Water Voles, 354

Wild Animals, 354

„ Duck, 358

with Camera on Stilts, 352

Young Eider, 262

„ Shags, 104

Photographs, Sitting up all Night for, 316

How we take our, 334

Photography, Curious Notions about 326

Dangers of Cliff, 341

Physical Degeneracy, 32

Piety of St. Kildans, 11

Picture, A Dearly-Bought, 228

Pigeon, How a Homer, saved a Child's Life,

324
Plover, Ringed, Habits of, 208

,, Young of, 208

Plovers, Position of Eggs of, 206
Where they sleep, 231

3G6

INDEX.

Poached Hare for Sale, 172
Poacher, Pathetic Story of a, 169

• Shooting Hares by Moonlight, 176

Trying to trap a Hare, 177

Poachers, Different kinds of, 169, 170
Poaching Grouse, 156

„ Weather for, 162

Hares, 172-175

Partridges, 171

of Partridges, how prevented, 171

Pond, Photographer and Camera fall into a,

358

Population of St. Kilda, 32
Porpoises, Wallowing, 3
Position, A Perilous, 110
Prayers of Highlanders, 320
Precipice, Highest, in British Isles, 56
Protection of Birds' Eggs and Young, 207
Provisions for St. Kilda, 1
Puffin, Bitten by, 78

Burrow, Saved by, 128

Gin, 112

• „ at Work, 109

Inquisitiveness of, 109

Life, Plenitude of, 113

Snaring, 80, 81, 112

Puffins, Behaviour of, when snared, 110

Catch of, on Bprrera, 84

Ejecting Rabbits from Burrows, 78

Flying against Wind, 61

Great Numbers of, on Soa, 102, 113

„ Slaughter of, 113

Grotesque Appearance of, 270

Kippered, 113

on Ailsa Craig, 268

Round Borrera, 76

Sound of Wings of, 78

Quartered in an Empty Cottage, 8
Queen of St. Kilda, 51
Quern Stones at St. Kilda, 53

Rabbits, Accidents to Young, 180

Biting their Captors, 181, 182

Breeding Habits of, 177

Fleas on, 181

• Great Fecundity of, 180

• Hide their Nests, 177, 180

• on Fame Islands, 332

Snared by day, 181

Race for a Train, 324
Rats, How to catch, 135
Ravens at St. Kilda, 100, 101

Curious Habits of, 148

Effect of, on Grouse, 163

Shot by Gamekeeper, 241

Where they sleep, 240

Razorbill, Young, 105
Razorbills, Clever capture of, 108

Round Borrera, 108

Receiver, Birdcatcher's, 282

Redstarts, Great Catch of, 292

Relics of Bygone Days, 53

Religion, An Austere, 36

Request, A Particular, 324

Rest enjoyed by Birds, 246

Ring-Ouzel, Habits of, 292

Robin, Male feeds Female, 202

Robins' Nests in Curious Situations, 196

Rocks grooved by Boat Keels, 44

Steepness of, at St. Kilda, 66

Rook frozen to Death, 233

Stealing Sticks from Heron, 190

Rooks killing Fledgelings, 146

— — Repairing Nests in Autumn, 236

Stealing Grouse Eggs, 146

„ Pheasants' Eggs, 146

„ Sticks, 190

Roosting of Grouse in Trees, 164

„ Partridges, 170

Rope, Horsehair, 124, 126
Ropes, Fowling, 124, 126

St. Cuthbert's Tower, Sleeping in a Haunted

Room in, 332
St. Kilda, Amusing the Men of, 81

• An Old Maid's Apartment at, 34

Aptitude of Inhabitants for Cliff-
climbing, 57

Arrival of Strangers at, 6

• as a Prize in a Boat-race, 16

— Astonishing the Natives of, 63

— Beards of Men of, 32
Bees never seen at, 128

• Birds seen at, 57

„ that only lay one Egg at, 120

Brooches, Peculiar, 19

Caring for Widows and Orphans at, 53

Cheese, 39

• Cleits, 46

Cliffs of, 56

Cliff-climbing, 57

Clipping Shears unknown at, 41

Complexion of People ajt, 46

Cuckoo considered a Messenger of

Death at, 128
Curious Boat-handling Custom at,

43

Death Dirge, Singing of, at, 34

Dignity of People of, 51

Direction of, indicated by Puffins

and Guillemots during a Fog, 4

Division of Cliffs of, 53

Dogs of, 6

Domestic Fowls little valued at, 48

Dress of Women at, 19

Drunkenness unknown in, 35

Early Marriage at, 37

Effect of Bagpipes on People of, 37

" Eight-Day Sickness," 33

Etiquette, Curious, 27

Factor's awkward Predicament, 24

First Acquaintance of Inhabitants

with Cement, 10

„ Sight of, 5

Food - supply of, compared with

that of Hebridean Crofters, 9

Fuel, 46

Generosity of People of, 52

— Graveyard neglected at, 44
Great Disappointment for People of, 48

„ Number of Eggs gathered, 119

„ Slaughter of Puffins, 113

„ Tragedy, 54

Growing Strawberries, 24

Hard Lot of Women, 19

Hearthrug for a Shawl, 22

Heron considered a Witch, 128

History of Illumination, 23

Honesty and Inquisitiveness of the

Inhabitants, 23

Houses, 11

• Inhabitants of. come to meet us, 8

„ landing Provisions, 8

Innocent Simplicity of People, 27

Isolation of, 28

Jew Pedlar, 27

Lady Grange's Exile, 28

Last Sight, 129

Letters from, 29

Light during Night, 100

„ How they used to pay for

one, 54

Loyalty of People of, 27

Love from, 129

„ of Gaudy Colours amongst

Women, 22

,, of Natives for, 49

" Lover's Stone," 37

Mailboat, 28

INDEX.

367

8t. Kilda, Market Day, 26

Married state distinguished by

Peculiar Head-dress, 22

Meeting of Past and Present, 23

Men, 10

,, make Women's Clothes, 18

Method of catching Sheep, 40

— Milking Ewes, 19

Mortality amongst Babes, 33

Origin of People of, 18

Parliament of, 53

Parting with Natives of, 129

Pastures on Sea-Cliffs, 41

• Petrels breeding, 244

Physical Degeneracy of People of, 32

Piety of People of, il

Population of, 32

Queen of, 51

Ravages of Smallpox, 34

Eelics, 53

Rough Seas, 43

Sale of Sea-Birds' Eggs, 8 '

— Seals at, 48

Seeming Indifference of Inhabitants

to Arrival of Strangers, 6
Sharing Profit of Boat, 53

„ Birds' Eggs, 53

Sharks, 48

Signs of Modernity, 22

• Steepness of Rocks, 66

Stock of Cattle and Sheep, 38

• Stone Lamp still in use, 14

" Stranger's cold," 33

Sunday, 9

Swallow, 57

Taste for Sweets, 35

The only inhabited part of the

British Isles unsurveyed, 36

Tree Sparrows, 58

Underground Dwelling, 13

Viking Spearhead found, 13

. Watchfulness of Inhabitants of, 38

Water-Supply, 42

Wedding Rings unknown, 22

Whimbrel caught at, 57

Why the Temperature of the Sea is

lower in Summer than Winter, 24

Woman's Skirt fastened with a

French Nail, 18

Women do Hard Work, 8 ; do Men's

Work, 18; leave Church
before Men, 10

• „ Suspicion of, 26

Wren, 70; Eggs of, 72,; How it

differs from Mainland Species, 71 ;
Nest of, 71

Sabbath, Snaring Grouse on, 158
Sale, Offering the Illustrator for, 49
Sal tee Islands, Puffins at, 272
Samson Post Trap, 144
Sanitary Arrangements of Birds, 218

Sassenach, Dread of the, 38

Scaring a Cragsman, 324

Scent retained by Breeding Game Birds, 166

Scot, A very Cautious, 320

Scotland, Larks decreasing in, 284

Scottish Gamekeepers' Sorrow and Scorn, 140

Scoulton Mere, Gulls at, 272

Scriptures, Photographer's Ignorance of, 140

Sea, A Message from the, 5

Sea-birds and their Haunts, 248

Mortality amongst, 258

Seals on Hiasker Islands, 3

Visits of, to St. Kilda, 48

Season for taking Wild Duck, 304
Secret of Field-work, 354
Sensations of Cliff-climbing, 56

of Descending a Cliff. 341

Nest, 88

Photographing Young, 104

Shags, Whale rising under a Flock of, 315
Shakespeare and the Bagpipes in England, 37
Sharks at St. Kilda, 48
Shearwater, Manx, Nesting Hole of, 66
Sheep at Half-a-crown each, 41

Curious Breed of, 39

Cutting Wool of, with Knives, 41

Killed on Borrera, 87

Lowered to browse on Ledges of Cliffs,

41

Method of catching, 40

Remarkable fecundity of, 41

Stock of, at St. Kilda, 38

Shelduck, Finding the Nest of, 316

Peculiar Habit of, 264

Shipwrecked Spaniards, 5
Shooting Grouse, 164
Shopping at St. Kilda, 26

Shrike, Photographing, on her Nest, 200
Signalling, Peculiar Manner of, for Help, 84
Sitting up for Photographs, 316
Skua, Richardson's, Hunting for the Nest of,

319

Sleep, Birds that require Little, 246
Sleeping Birds, how they keep warm, 232

„ Perches, 232

Habits and haunts of Blackbirds.

234 ; Cuckoo, 240 ; Fieldfares, 247 ;
Great Black-backed Gulls, 242 ; Gulls,
242; Hedgesparrows, 234; Kittiwakes,
242 ; Nightjar, 245 ; Owls, 244 ; Petrels,
244 ; Pheasants, 240, 247 ; Ravens, 240 ;
Robins, 234 ; Starlings, 235 ; Swallows,
239 ; Terns, 242 ; Tits, 238 ; Wild Duck,
241

Smallpox, Ravages of, at St. Kilda, 34
Smell, Sense of, in Fulmar Petrel, 62
Smuggling in East Anglia, 310
Snare that saved a Man's Life, 112
Snow, Photographing Birds in the, 355
Soa, An Awkward Island to land on, 106

Curious Breed of Sheep on, 39

Great Number of Puffins on, 102, 113

Prospects of a compulsory stay on, 120

Rough Seas round, 121

Soaring of Solan Geese, 268

Solan Geese building their Nests, 88

How caught while asleep, 90, 92

Language of, 92

Martin's first Experience of, 88

Number killed at St. Kilda, 90

on Bass Rock, 265-266

on Stack Lee, 76, 93

on the Wing, 94

Return to Summer Quarters, 90

Roguery of, 88, 266

Sentinels to Warn, 92

Soaring of, 268

Tameness of, 266
Goose, Curious Accident to, 93

. „ „ Finds in the Nest of, 93

Soldiers' Pillows, Fulmars' Feathers in. 119
Song of Thrush in Early Morning, 133
Sparrow-hawk and Live Birds, 285

Prey, 202

Sparrow-hawk's Devotion, 202
Sparrows, House, Change of Sleeping Quarters,
238

„ Clutch of Eggs of, 202

„ Destroying each other's

Eggs, 189

Eggs of, 204

Examining, in their Sleep-
ing Quarters, 238

Make Sleeping Quarters, 236

Nests stolen by Starlings,
190

Sexes of, 241

Sleep in Old Nests and
Nesting-Box, 235

368

INDEX.

Sparrows, House, steal Martins' Nests, 189

Tree, hawking for Flies at St. Kilda,

68

„ How to distinguish, 202

„ White Eggs of, 204

Spider's Web said to have caught Golden-
crested Wren, 358

„ Strength of, 359

Sport with the Fishing Line, 67, 68
Stalking a Cormorant, 249
Starlings, Breeding Habits of, 184

How they are caught, 276, 277

Bear a Brood in a Rose-tree, 190

• Singing by Night, 235

Stealing Sparrows' Nests, 190

Where they sleep, 235

Steamer on the Rocks, 130

" Stranger's Cold" at St. Kilda, 33
Strategy, A Piece of Successful, 315
Strawberry-growing in High Latitudes, 24
Suspended in Mid-Air, 112
Swallow at St. Kilda, 57

High Situation of Nest of, 328

Swallows, Fully-fledged, roosting in Old
Nest, 240

Photographing, by Flashlight, 240

,, on a Telegraph

Wire, 350
Sweets for St. Kildans, 1

Taste for, at St. Kilda, 35

Swimming a Lost Art at St. Kilda, 23

to a Rock for a Photograph of

Connorants, 348

Teetotalers, Difficulties of, in Highlands, 318
Telegraph Wire, Photographing Swallows on,

350

Temperateness of St. Kildans, 35
Tern, An Angry, 256

Roseate, at Fame Islands, 256

Terns and Protective Coloration, 254

Clutches of Eggs of, 254

Defencelessness of, 257

Fishing for Prey, 256

Harmonisation of Young, with Sur-

rounding Objects, 252

Strange Conduct of, 250, 256:

Wakefulness of, 242

Where they breed, 250

Young, Variation of Colour of, 252

Testing Strength of a Spider's Web, 35Q
Thirsts, Noble and Ignoble, 322
Thrash, Early Morning Song of, 133
Thrushes, Where they sleep, 234
Young, 229

Timber bored by Teredos, 47

Washed on St. Kilda by Gulf Stream.

46

Tit, Blue, Nest of, 223
Tits, „ Habits of, 224

Curious Nesting-Places of, 196

Sleeping Quarters of, 238

Tobacco for St. Kildans, 1
Tourists, Behaviour of, 51
Tragedy at St. Kilda, 54
Trap, Cat, 153

Curious Fox, 153, 154

Figure-of-Four, 144

Trapping Cats, 152

Nightingales, 290

Stoats, 143, 144

Tree Creeper, Devotion of a, 199

Hollow tenanted by Jackdaws and

Bees, 193

Trees, Dangers and Difficulties of Photograph-
ing Nests in, 344, 346, 348

Trees, Grouse roosting in, 164

Turf, Burning, used by Decoy-men, 305

Underground Dwelling at St. Kilda, 13 ; on

Borrera, 82
Ulysses, A Modern, 130

Vermin, Bait for, 146

Viking Spearhead found at St. Kilda, 13

Village Bay, Curious Effect of Wind in, 95

„ Dangers of, 95

„ Narrow Escape in, 96

„ Storm in, 96

Vole, Water, Photographing, 354

Wagtail, Pied, Curious Nesting-Place of, 196,

. 22S

'- — Gray, Photographing, 200

Water, Falling into a Shaft full of, 358

Photographing in, 352

Supply at St. Kilda, 43

Waterhen (see Moorhen)
Waves, Effect of, on Passengers, 3
Magnificence of, 122

Weather suitable for calling Grouse, 162

Weather- Wisdom of a Hebridean, 2

Wedding Rings unknown at St. Kilda, 22

Whale and Shags, 315 .

Jawbone of, 46

Oil from a Dead, 46

Wheatear, Early Rising of, 100

Whimbrel caught at St. Kilda, 57

Whistle, Steam, Effect of, 6

Widows, How cared for at St. Kilda, 53

Wild Duck, Behaviour of, in a Decoy Pipe, 308
Big Catch of, 295
Following Decoy-man's Dog, 308
Photographing, 358
Powers of Scent, 305
Season for taking, 304
Seen from a Decoy Pipe, 306
, Where and when they sleep, 241

Wind, Curious Effect of, 95

Woman's Esteem, Winning a, 313

Skirt fastened with a French Nail

18

Women leave Church before Men at St.
Kilda, 10

of St. Kilda, Suspicion of, 26

Wool cut off Sheep with Knives, 41

Wreck, A Narrow Escape from, 130-133

Wren, Common, Asleep, 232

" Cocks," Nests of, 186
Materials of Nest-building,

Nest of, 184

Positions of Nest of, 186

Stealing Nesting Materials,

190
Golden-crested, said to have been

caught by Spider's Web, 358
St Kilda, on Soa, 114

,, How it Differs from Main-
land Species, 71

„ Nest of, 71

„ Photographing a, 74

Young', 72, 73

Wood, Nest ef, 223

Yellow-hammer, Alarm Note of, 234

Sleeping Quarters of, 234

Yorkshire, Highest Inhabited House in 327
Yorkshireman's Dry Humour, 328

" Grand Day," 319

Queer Notions of London, 328

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