BURROWING BIRDS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sul,—The article on " Burrowing Birds" in the Spectator of February 4th is very interesting, but I am afraid I cannot agree with everything that is said in it about stormy petrels I have found about a dozen of their nests, and in no case could the burrow have been made by the petrels themselves. Three of the nests were under the large flat stones which form the steps up to the bee-hive cells on the Skelligs; all the others were on Puffin Island, off Co. Kerry, and in no case were the barrows small enough to lead me to believe that they had been made by the petrels. They were, I think, in every case (except under the steps) old rabbit-burrows which had been appropriated first by puffins, and afterwards by the stormy petrels. The mother birds were not on their eggs for the simple reason that they got away as far as they could from the intruding hand, but the eggs were so warm that there is no doubt whatever that they had been sitting on them. In several cases I heard the " cooing " mentioned in the article; indeed, if the birds would stay quiet it would be much harder to find their nests. The idea that they look at their eggs and coo may be very pretty, but it is not in accord- ance with what experience has taught us; and the tempera- ture of any nest that I have ever found was certainly not sufficient to hatch the eggs,—quite the reverse.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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