DR JOHNSTON'S ADDRESS. :> 



These are the only birds remarkable for their rarity, which have 00 

 curred during the year; for I do not remember that any such was met with 

 in our excursions. In that of June, made to Langleyford, at the foot of 

 Cheviot, our distinguished colleague, Mr Selby, entertained some slight 

 hopes of meeting with the ring-thrush ( Turdua torquatus), which, it was 

 supposed, might breed near this sequestered hamlet : but the information 

 of the respectable tenant proved the contrary ; for the bird is seen there . 

 only in the later autumnal months, on its return from still more inland 

 and more remote moors. During our ascent of Hedgehope on that day, 

 the curlew (Numenius arquata) first, and, somewhat higher up, the 

 golden plover ( Charadrius pluvialis\ uttering as it flew from us its shrill 

 plaintive cry, were seen in their breeding-grounds ; and the blackcock 

 ( Tetrao tetrix) was heard harshly calling to his mates. On this occasion, 

 as on several previous ones, T was struck with the cries of the birds we 

 noticed : there was no sprightliness in them, nor melody ; but all were 

 plaintive, or rapid and harsh, and tended to increase that still sobriety 

 that almost solemn mood which irresistibly steals over the mind of 

 him who traverses these noiseless, wide, dark-brown moors. The melo- 

 dy of the groves is not in harmony with the -scene; and the warblers 

 leave it willingly for haunts nearer the cheerful buzz of man and ci- 

 vilization. But our excursion in July presented us with a most remark- 

 able contrast to the scenery of the Cheviots : a wide and rough rolling 

 sea, a coast fronted with lofty, dark, and precipitous rocks, caverned with 

 gloomy recesses, so bold, so rugged, and naked, that Scotland scarce 

 boasts one of superior grandeur. And how diverse were its feathered 

 tenants in appearance and habits ! The slender-legged tribes of the 

 moor, clothed in a mottled plumage, were here replaced with birds dis- 

 tinguished by short legs, strength of body, and by colours disposed in 

 large and unmixed patches, often strongly contrasted : and while the for- 

 mer wheeled round and about us in circles, muttering their cries on wing, 

 the latter flew out in a straight undeviating line, and silently. Nor were 

 they less distinguished by their voices ; for the cries of seafowl are never 

 plaintive, but most harsh, and most consonant with the pictorial character 

 of their haunts. Pennant has given a description of these, so excellent, 

 that I must be allowed to quote it here, with only a very few alterations, 

 to make it more exact to St Abb's Head, the place of our visit. This 

 magnificent promontory is a huge insulated mass of trap rocks, whose 

 seaward sides form precipices of vast height, hollowed in many places 

 into caverns, in which the wild pigeons ( Columba Iwia) build their nests, 

 and nurture their young in safety, amid the spray of waves that never 

 sleep in rest. In some parts the caverns penetrate far and end in dark- 

 ness ; in others, are pervious, and give a romantic passage by another 

 opening equally superb. Many of the rocks are insulated, of a pyrami- 

 dal form, and soar to a great height. The bases of most are solid ; but 

 in some pierced through and arched. They are covered with the dung 



