ceeded to the west end of the island, and ascending to the summit, found ourselves above the cliffs, where the Gannets were sitting, close to each other, on their eggs. We crept cautiously down amongst them, and so attentive were they to their occupation of sitting, that it was with difficulty they could be forced from their eggs, though at other times they are extremely shy. They lay but one, which is perfectly white, and in shape and size nearly resembles that of a crocodile; it is placed on the bare rock, surrounded by a circle of wet sea-weed, which is constantly replenished by the male as it becomes dry. I had been told, but doubted the fact, that during the time of incubation the female holds the egg in her foot; this I found to be the case. In a visit I made in the August following, the young were many of them gone: but still I had an opportunity of examining them in their different ages, previous to their leaving the island. When first produced from the egg, they are black and very ugly; in a few days they become covered by a resplendent white down; in about a month afterwards, their first feathers begin to appear; they are black the first year, spotted with white the second, and on the third attain their mature plumage. The specimens are in the regular progression. DIVERS (COLYMBUS.) Imber Divers, male and female, shot in the Long Hope, Isle of Hoy. Red-throated Divers, male and female, very rare, with their eggs; taken in Hoy. BRITISH GREBES. A complete collection of the birds of this family, containing male and female of every species known in Great Britain; they inhabit still water, and several of them make floating nests, and breed in the fens of Lincolnshire and the meers of Cheshire. GULLS (LARUS.) NEARLY every species of the British Gulls, with their eggs and young, are contained in this Case; they were collected during two voyages to the Orkney and Shetland Isles, undertaken in the spring and autumn of 1812, for the purpose of investigating the natural productions of those sequestered countries. The principal breeding place in Great Britain, of the larger brown species called the Skua Gull, (Larus Cataractes,) is on the top of a mountain in the secluded isle of Foula, distant about eighteen leagues from the Orkneys. We visited this romantic spot early in the month of July, and received a hearty welcome from the poor but hospitable inhabitants, to whom the sight of a stranger is an unusual occurrence; on learning the object of our visit, the person who acts as schoolmaster and minister, for they have no resident clergyman, offered to attend us to the top of the hill were the Bonxies (the Shetland name of the Skua) were then hatching their young; we had scarcely arrived at the place, before we were attacked in the most furious manner by these enraged and formidable birds, who flew with the utmost violence in the direction of our eyes, and were not at all intimidated by the report of our guns, or the numbers that we killeď: a large dog that we took with us was so roughly treated, that it was obliged to come to us for assistance, and my son received a violent blow on the back of his head, whilst stooping to secure a bird he had wounded. They lay their eggs, four in number, of a dull olive colour with large dusky spots, on the ground, among the short heath and grass, and it was with difficulty we could find them; the young were covered with a fine cinnamon-coloured down, exceedingly soft and beautiful. We brought some of them alive to England; they were very tame and affectionate, but were much longer in getting their first feathers, than the young of any other of the Gulls; their voice was very remarkable, strongly resembling the horns used by the guards of the mail coaches. The Great Black-backed Gull. (Larus Marinus.) This is the largest of the genus, and is when living a beautiful species; it is a northern bird, but during winter in severe weather is occasionally seen on our shores; it does not breed in England, nor has its place or manner of incubation been described. We found it on the Souliskerry, a small uninhabited and desert island, about ten leagues to the west of the Orkneys in great numbers, so that it was difficult to walk in some places without treading on their eggs, which are laid on the bare flat ground with a few weeds round them, four in number, of an olive colour with brown blotches, nearly the size of those of a goose, but of a rounder shape; the young are covered with a fine grey down, spotted with black, and are scarcely to be distinguished from those of the lesser black-backed, which breed on the same retired and melancholy spot, but in separate places. This island is solely in the possession of myriads of sea-fowl, and the great seal which breed there in undisturbed security, in the month of November; we saw several hundred of their skeletons, some of which were ten feet long; till our visit, the island had not been disturbed by human foot for several years, owing to the distance from any human habitation, and the difficulty of landing. Arctic Gulls. (Larus Parasiticus.) This is a fierce and rapacious species, attacking whatever approaches its nest; and the arts they make use of to decoy an intruder from its neighbourhood, exceed those of any other bird. They never fish for themselves like the other gulls, but watch the Kittiwake, the common gull, &c. and as soon as they observe they have taken their prey, attack them, and by striking them on the back, oblige them to disgorge the fish they |