114 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



by steep scaurs and rubble slopes, and interspersed with the green 

 patches occupied by the Gull colonies on the tops of the outlying 

 rocks. Especially did we admire the portion underneath the Light- 

 house, where the precipitous stacks of Flodecarr and the Claver, topped 

 with sea-pink and grass, are inhabited by a mixed colony of Herring 

 and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, whose white breasts, along with the 

 bright green beneath their feet, shewed in striking and peculiar 

 contrast against the dark red of the cliff-face, which, in turn, is 

 capped by the white walls and outhouses of the Lighthouse station. 

 Near this, also, are the caves and chasms known as "Downie's 

 Goate," and " The Barn Yards." 



All along this face the Guillemots and Eazorbills inhabited 

 patches of the cliff-face here and there, often near the summits, but 

 even when compared with the Isle of May, which I had shortly before 

 visited, they could not be said to constitute a large colony. 

 According to Selby* the rocks here are porphyritic amygdaloid, an<^ 

 there are few, if any, boulders below the cliff above tide-mark! 

 It appears to be pretty firm in the lower portions and to afford good 

 foot-hold, but I doubt if, higher in the cliff-face, it would be safe. 

 There are no regular ledges, nor flat horizontal platforms, such as those 

 at Handa and Mingalay, or in the Shiant Islands, but only irregular 

 nooks and crevices, as on the cliffs at Stonehaven — which I also 

 visited this year along with Mr. George Sim, of Aberdeen — these 

 being formed by fallen rock-masses. Some of these, however, are 

 of considerable size, affording foot-hold for perhaps 100 birds. A 

 colony has this year chosen a new site upon the precipitous western 

 side of the stack called Girnsheugh, our boatman saying that he 

 did not remember its having been occupied before. 



As already mentioned, on the best available islet tops colonies of 

 Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls were located, and we could 

 see many of the little round puff-balls of down creeping about upon 

 the turf-slopes, and little heads and eyes peering down at us as we 



Rounding the western end of the headland we came into the 

 Cove Bay, where is a fishing station and salmon storing-house, the 

 cliffs containing an interesting colony of Guillemots. We could 

 here row close inshore, and dislodge the greater part of the colony. 

 Before doing so, however, I examined them carefully with my 



* Lot. cit., vol. i., p. 18. See also " History of Coldingham Priory," p. 179. 



