174 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



thered tribes. Cormorants, hawks, owls, gulls, 

 choughs, and doves, are the constant tenants of 

 the rocks ; and the periodical visits of the star- 

 ling, solan goose, puffin, razor-bill, and guille- 

 mot, swell the catalogue of interesting birds, and 

 break the stillness of these wild precipices. That 

 rare and beautiful bird, the peregrine falcon, is 

 often found here ; and Pennant assm-es us, that 

 a cast of hawks, from Orme's-Head, was, in days 

 of yore, no mean present. 



The unsightly cormorant may here be found 

 in uncommon abundance, and might be observed 

 in all its habits and conditions. One circum- 

 stance I had frequent opportunities of noticing, 

 which displayed strikingly, that nature had not 

 bestowed on these birds many advantages of 

 structure or mechanical contrivance. After a 

 stormy day, vast numbers of them were found at 

 the foot of the rocks, probably killed by being 

 dashed by the wind against the projecting cliffs ; 

 while not a single gull or guillemot had suffered 

 from a similar cause. During the heaviest part 

 of the gale, I had observed these birds cowering 

 in the crevices of the rocks, insensible to our 

 shouts, and even to the report of a fowling-piece. 

 Stones repeatedly hurled at them, even with 

 effect, could not drive them from their place. 

 They seemed conscious of their inability to use 



