THE CRAIG OF AILSA. 128 



personal observation, during the repeated stays I have from time to time 

 made upon it; many a pleasant hour have T spent in watching them in their 

 amusements, and within a shorter distance of them than they suspected. I 

 have often remarked that however near they will permit you at any other 

 time, you can never approach them, excepting under some ruse, at this merry 

 time of day. T have felt greatly interested, in a calm summer evening, to 

 witness several thousands of them swimming in divisions, within thirty feet of 

 the shore, the conditions of the game appearing to be sufficiently known; for 

 without any intimation, a number of the leading birds wheel right round, 

 and go fluttering and spluttering down through the centre of the vast and 

 varied community, which appeared to me the signal for diving, for in a second 

 there was scarcely one to be seen above water; and when a number of them 

 did appear, they seemed to look out for the reappearance of others, and no 

 sooner did that occur, than down they went again, followed by the pursuing 

 party. This order of things was carried out by other divisions, till the whole 

 were scattered without any regard to caste or colour, which circumstance quite 

 overruled the proverb of "birds of a feather flocking together," and went far, 

 I think, to prove the existence of a republic amongst them. In the midst 

 of their aquatic performances, I have observed a whole body of them suddenly 

 appear from underneath, in the midst of a large flock of Kittywakes, or 

 Sea Gulls, [Larus Sissa,) which were lightly and gently floating on the surface, 

 in fact, light as the ocean foam itself, and which they put to flight without 

 much ceremony; and if I could judge by their fantastic gestures, they seemed 

 highly gratified in having played ofi" this submarine trick so successfully. 



I have also been much amused with the startling surprise exhibited by a 

 Cormorant, {Phalacracorax (jraculus,) on finding a hundred heads pop up 

 immediately under the rock on which he was perched. After viewing them for 

 a short time, with an expression as grave as a mustard pot, he waddles off 

 to a greater elevation, evidently considering this diversion a waste of time, 

 for his habits are decidedly more of the alderman than the anchorite. 



It never follows that those beasts of the field, or fowls of the air, with 

 such unquenchable appetites, are as well suited for the food of man as those 

 which feed more sparingly; and my experience from the variety of which I 

 have partaken, enables me to judge of their quality; for in addition to upwards 

 of eighty British species, including Hawks, Owls, and Carrion Crows, I 

 could enumerate at least one hundred and fifty American species, commenc- 

 ing with the Canvass-back Duck, (Anas Valisineria,) which feeds upon the 

 wild celery so abundant in the Susquehanna, and also in the swamps of the 

 great Mississippi, and is esteemed above all others the greatest delicacy to be 

 found on that continent; from that I have descended as low in the epicurean 

 scale as the Turkey Buzzard, (Vullur aura,) which regales himself with as 

 much gusto upon a rotten carcass, as the Ruby -throated Humming Bird does 

 from the honey-cells of the Petunia, which proves that my knowledge of the 

 good things of this life was inferior to that of Saint Peter, for he knew where 



