ENGLISH BIRD-LIFE 



t05 





Bird-egging on Bempton Cliffs 



About 130.000 Murres' eggs are gathered here yearly. A "clinimer " may 

 be seen on the face of the cliff. 



haunts of these boreal water-fowl. They may be found in fa- 

 vorable localities, from the Scilly Islands to the Hebrides, 

 but a variety of circumstances led me to the Bempton Cliffs 

 at Flamborough Head in Yorkshire, the Fame Islands, off 

 the Northumberland coast, and Bass Rock, in the Firth of 

 Forth, and I am assured that no ornithological pilgrim will 

 go far from the Mecca of his ho])e if he follows this route. 



At the Bempton Cliffs, which may be reached from F^rid- 

 lington, one may see the men go down the precipitous chalk- 

 headlauds, from three to four hundred feet, on a ro]io, to 

 gather Murres' eggs, while tlieii- mates, thi'oo to llicgang, 

 with heels dug into oft-used hollows, stolidly lowei- or raise. 



