BIRDS OF THE SEA 



There is a salt vigour in the air, and as the hght 

 breeze sends our httle boat hissing through the 

 waves, the great sea-chffs cease to appear mere 

 barriers of misty whiteness and begin to take on 

 definite features. In many places the face of the 

 rocks are sheer, giving no foothold for even the 

 hardiest herbage, but elsewhere the grass grows 

 freely on the ledges, and on some of the gentler 

 declivities there are hollows and even broad terraces 

 of the tenderest green. 



Already the birds are about us and the air is 

 filled with their varied cries. A\^hen still many 

 miles away, parties of Guillemots, in close forma- 

 tion, swept past the boat at times making for the 

 distant clift's. Now they may be seen in all direc- 

 tions riding on the heaving tide, the black and 

 white plumage of back and breast, and even the 

 rusty brown of the neck, clearly contrasting with 

 the green water. Save when the bows cleave 

 through some little group, they show small sign of 

 fear ; even then, they merely fly for a few yards, 

 with extended legs trailing through the water, and 

 alight again amidst their fellows. 



Beneath the precipitous rocks of the great breed- 

 ing station the Guillemots are around us in countless 

 thousands, flying hither and thither like bees about 



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