194 JOTTINGS ABOUT TII^^DS. 



allusion to the beautiful effect these birds produce 

 by their bold contrast of colour and delicate 

 outline, either when following a shoal of fry, attend- 

 ing the fishing-boats, or flitting buoyantly up and 

 down the httle creeks amongst the limpet-covered 

 and sea-weed draped rocks of their island haunts ; 

 or, yet again, at their breeding-places, where they 

 literally fill the air like a living snowstorm. 



Let us now pass on to some of the other sea- 

 birds. It would seem that the majority of marine 

 painters are ignorant of the existence of any other 

 sea-fowl but Gulls, and consequently those birds are 

 introduced into every description of littoral scenery. 

 But every part of the shore has its peculiar birds. 

 The bold rugged headlands rising sheer from a 

 restless sea are the abode of the Awk family, 

 represented in our islands by the Guillemot {Uria 

 troilt), the Black Guillemot {Uria gnjlle), and the 

 Razorbill (Jlica torda). The Guillemot and the 

 Razorbill crowd in incredible numbers on the ledges 

 and in the crannies and clefts of the cliffs. M'^ell 

 drawn, these birds make admirable subjects for the 

 painter, their black and white plumage being dis- 

 played in effective contrast. The two species are 

 very similar in colour, but the Guillemot is easily 

 distinguished bv its long- narrow beak, that of the 



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