Commonest Bird ?
What is the commonest bird? Those who have especially studied the statistics of the subject say the blackbird and the chaffinch, which exceed in numbers, so it is said, even the sparrow and starling. A Northern observer some years ago put in a claim, a most surprising claim, for the fulmar petrel. In support of this theory, a note on birds in the Northern islands has reached me. The whole passage is of general interest. " On Mousa an ancient ' Picts' Castle' is the nesting-site for numbers of puffins and a few black guillemots, while fulmar petrel nest in the stone walls of the island, as well as on the cliffs of Noss, where their numbers are vast. . . The gannets, who formerly occupied one or two stacks, now nest cheek by jowl with razorbills and guillemots on the ledges, and may in a few years succeed in ousting the ancient inhabitants altogether." 'The allusion to the gannets is interesting, since they have just succeeded in " ousting ancient inhabitants " in the Channel Islands. Since the few old haunts are as populous as ever, we may conclude that the species isi on the increase—and the fishermen begin to. complain.
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