Visit to the Haunts of the Cormorant 167 



repeated efforts to gulp it ; and when you fancy that the slip- 

 pery mouthful is successfully disposed of, all on a sudden the 

 eel retrogrades upwards from its dismal sepulchre, struggling 

 violently to escape. The cormorant swallows it again ; and 

 up again it comes, and shows its tail a foot or more out of its 

 destroyer's mouth. At length, worn out with ineffectual 

 writhings and slidings, the eel is gulped down into the cor- 

 morant's stomach for the last time, there to meet its dreaded 

 and inevitable fate. This gormandising exhibition was wit- 

 nessed here by several individuals, both ladies and gentlemen, 

 on Nov. 26. 1832, through an excellent eight and twenty 

 guinea telescope ; the cormorant being, at that time, not more 

 than a hundred yards distant from the observers. I was of 

 the party. 



When I visited Flamborough Head in the first week in 

 June, I was disappointed in not seeing the cormorant there ; 

 but I was informed in Bridlington Quay, that this bird was 

 not to be found nearer than the rocks at Buckton ; and that 

 it had eggs very late in the season. In consequence of this 

 information, I made a second expedition to the sea coast, and 

 arrived at Bridlington Quay on July 14. 1834. 



About three quarters of a mile from the sea, betwixt Flam- 

 borough Head and Filey Bay, stands the once hospitable 

 mansion of Buckton Hall. I say hospitable ; because its 

 carved ornaments in stone, its stately appearance, and the 

 excellent manner in which its out-buildings have been con- 

 structed, plainly indicate that mirth and revelry must once 

 have cheered its walls. But the tide of prosperity has ceased 

 to flow. Something or other seems to have intervened, and 

 turned it down another channel: for now the once well- 

 known Buckton Hall is a neglected mansion ; and the stranger, 

 as he passes near it, sees at one glance that it is no longer a 

 place of rendezvous for the great. The present tenant kindly 

 allowed the horse and gig, which I had hired in Bridlington 

 Quay, to be put under cover till I returned from the cliff. 



My guide, whose name was Mellor, and who possesses a 

 very accurate knowledge of all the birds in this district, 

 having mustered men and ropes in the village of Buckton, 

 we proceeded across the table land to the Raincliff, which 

 forms a perpendicular wall to the ocean, 140 yards high. 

 Whilst I was descending this precipice, thousands of guille- 

 mots and razorbills enlivened the interesting scene. Some 

 were going down to the water, others were ascending from 

 it; while every ledge of the rock, as far as my eye could 

 reach, was literally covered with birds of the same species. 



m 4 



