Warm, sunny weather in the earlier part of the month raised our hopes of a change of diet, and, coupled with the early appearance of the paidlefish spawn, our expectations of an early fishing ran high. On the 8th, the capture of three small cods in “Johnny Gray” track increased our hopes, and again on the 9th, eight were taken, but since then we’ve had no other. Cold, blowy weather, with heavy seas, has rendered all attempts in this direction futile; however, the attraction--as evidenced by the stomachs of those captured--still increases, and numbers of bloated paidle “hens,” with their lower jaws protruding like a prize bull-dog, are seen cruising sluggishly among the tangles in quest of a suitable nesting place. The nests this season are unusually small; sometimes they contain as much ova as would fill a quart pot. Each ovum is a sixteenth of an inch in diameter, and were all permitted to come to maturity--instead of becoming food for other fishes as most do--would soon fill the sea of themselves. “All nature is at one with rapine and war,” and necessarily so, otherwise we would soon be crowded out of existence. Our winter residents, the eiders and longtails, have gradually disappeared. On the 4th, a representative pair of each alone remained, but these have now thought better of it and gone the way of their more sensible comrades. A few gulls, herring, and kittiwakes hover about, and guillemots and gannets are now common. The gannets, I am informed by the keepers on the Bass Rock, commenced laying there on the 11th. The solitary egg these birds deposit is heavily coated with lime, which, when scrubbed off, exposes a pale blue surface. This coating is probably the origin of the fallacy that these birds ensure the safety of their eggs by cementing them to the bare rock. On the contrary, each nest is composed of quite a barrow-load of material of the most miscellaneous description. One of these nests noted on the Bass this season was seen to have the end of a soft-soap barrel for a foundation, armfuls of withered grass, dried tangles, bits of rope, string, cotton waste, and other flotsam and jetsam picked up about the Rock. Amongst the lining of the nest, pheasant and partridge feathers were seen, which were certainly not garnered on the Bass. The harvesting of the withered grass was accomplished between dark and daylight, and, therefore, unnoticed by the keepers, but the area of their operations, as seen next day, suggested the presence of a lawn mower. Thousands of these birds are slaughtered annually by the St Kildians as an article of diet, and the wonder is, considering the solitary egg deposited and that three years elapse before the adult stage is reached, that they continue so numerous.