76 On some Mammalia and Birds found at St. Abb^s Head. 



Short, and in some respects unsatisfactoiy as the foregoing 

 remarks may prove, still the general result of the excursion, w lien 

 taken in connection with what had previously been observed for 

 the last twelve years along our shores and on the Bass, was very 

 instructive. With a keen eye I scanned the lofty precipices, and 

 the multitude of common and herring gulls which hurried to 

 and fro ; there, as on the Bass, I noted the great scarcity of^young 

 birds of the preceding year. Repeated littoral rambles and daily 

 observations have now convinced me, that immediately after the 

 breeding season the great majority of the young birds retire from 

 Scotland, and do not return until they have assumed the adult 

 plumage ; and there are some reasons for supposing that the same 

 remark is applicable to the young of the greater and lesser 

 black-backed gulls*. 



It is for the pen of the geologist to describe the order of the 

 rocks composing the headland, — how this has been upheaved and 

 that depressed ; to attempt to describe their scenic effect is be- 

 yond my power ; but if I may be permitted to note some of the 

 physical aspects of that coast, then must I confess, that as the 

 boat swept onwards through narrow straits, and across rocky 

 coves under the shadow of frowning crags towering in some 

 parts to the height of about 300 feet, which for countless ages 

 had opposed their eternal front to the angry weaves of the 

 German Ocean, the mind was filled with awe; and yet the 

 waves were so gentle, that from out of the numerous long dark 

 caverns by which the rock was pierced, th^re came forth a mur- 

 mur, not of wrath, but of power; but when the tempest howls 

 along the rugged shore, surely the terrible in nature must be 

 realized ! Wherever the fissures in the sloping rocks were filled 

 with mould, grasses of sorts, sea-pink, rose-root, and Silene 

 maritima waved in cheerful ])rofusion, whilst the nakedness of 

 some rocks was relieved by patches of Ramelina ; and inside the 

 Skelly Rock, the golden Parmelia parietina was distributed in 

 linear patches, and that with a regularity which made me curious 

 to ascertain its cause. 



But it is the presence of those vast multitudes of sea-fowl 

 which imparts life and animation to the scene, replete with busy 

 and brooding love, ledge upon ledge, crevice upon crevice, 

 ])eopled for a few short weeks by guillemots, razorbills and 

 kittiwakes, whose ordinary home is the great deep. Thousands of 

 rapid pinions beat the air with measured strokes as they hurry 

 to and fro ; the heavy-bodied species extend their legs, and then 

 draw them up as they launch from the ledges, and they care- 

 fully ascend upwards to their nests so as to break the shock to 



* The following species assume the adult plumage : Larus marinus, 

 L.fuscus and L. nrf/entatus in three years, LarM.v canus in two years. See 

 Jenyns's Manual of Brit. Vert. An. pp. 2/5-2/8. 



