162 Visit to the Haunts of the Guillemot. 



Art. II. Notes of a Visit to the Haunts of the Guillemot, and 

 Facts on its Habits, By Charles Waterton, Esq. 



The immense range of perpendicular rocks, lashed by olo 

 ocean's briny surge, offers a choice and favourable retreat to 

 myriads of wildfowl, from far-famed Flamborough Head to 

 Bempton, and thence to Buckton and Speaton, and onwards 

 to the Bay of Filey. 



He who wishes to examine the nidification of these birds 

 ought to be at this part of the sea coast early in the month of 

 May. About five miles from Bridlington Quay is the village 

 of Flamborough, chiefly inhabited by fishermen ; and a little 

 farther on is a country inn, called the North Star, which has 

 good accommodation for man and horse ; but a lady would 

 feel herself ill at ease in it, on account of the daily visits of the 

 fishermen, those hardy sons of Neptune, who stop at it on 

 their way to the ocean, and again on their return. Here they 

 rendezvous, to fortify their interior with a pint or two of com- 

 fort, and to smoke a pipe, by way of compensation for the 

 many buffets which they ever and anon receive in the exercise 

 of their stormy and nocturnal calling. 



On the bare ledges of these stupendous cliffs the guillemot 

 lays its egg, which is exposed to the face of heaven, without 

 any nest whatever ; but the razorbills and puffins lay theirs 

 in crannies, deep and difficult of access. Here, too, the pere- 

 grine falcon breeds, and here the raven rears its young; while 

 the rock pigeon and the starling enter the fissures of the preci- 

 pice, and proceed with their nidification, far removed from 

 the prying eye of man. The kittiwake makes her nest of 

 dried grass wherever she can find a lodgement, and lays two 

 spotted eggs, very rarely three. The Gormorant and shag 

 inhabit that part of the rocks which is opposite to Buckton 

 Hall. You are told that the cormorants had their nests, in 

 former times, near to the Flamborough lighthouse ; but now 

 these birds totally abandon the place during the breeding 

 season. The jackdaw is found throughout the whole of this 

 bold and craggy shore; he associates with the seafowl, as 

 though he were quite at home, amongst his own inland con- 

 geners. Towards the top of the cliffs, both rabbits and foxes 

 have descended from the table land above them, and managed 

 to find a shelter among the crevices, in places where you 

 would suppose that no four-footed animal would ever dare to 

 venture. A low mound, half earth, half stone, thrown up by 

 the farmers for the protection of their flocks, skirts the wind- 

 ing summit of the precipice. Cattle have been known to 

 surmount this artificial boundary, and lose their lives in the 

 roaring surge below. 



