BIRDS OF THE SEA 443 



sea, find a home in this vast barrier of chahv. 

 Xoisy grey-headed Jackdaws, their black plumes 

 contrasting with the snowy whiteness of the Kitti- 

 wakes, swarm about the crevices. Rock Doves, 

 like broad blue arrows, dart round the angle of the 

 cliff. Upon a grassy mound, undeterred by the 

 constant thunder of the surf below, a Rock Pipit 

 sits piping softly. Here, at one time, the croak 

 of the Raven might be frequently heard, as the 

 bird of ill-omen steered its straight course to the 

 nesting ledges, and even to-day the dark form 

 of the Peregrine mav still be seen, cutting the 

 blue air, as the mighty bird stoops from the sky 

 to its eyrie on the splintered rocks. 



At intervals along the whole line of the British 

 coast, cliff formations occur, which, from vast areas, 

 draw the birds of the sea to their craggy breasts. 

 Of such are the famous Fame Islands, a group of 

 different elevations and of characters varying from 

 the shingles of the Sandwich Tern and the Oyster- 

 catcher, and the grassy holms of the Eider, to the 

 loftiest rock-masses beloved of the Razor-bills, 

 Guillemots and the Kittiwakes. Of such, too, is 

 the Bass Rock on the east, and .Vilsa Craig on the 

 west, the ancestral homes of the Gannets, and along 

 the coast-lines of the Outer Hebrides and of the 

 Shetlands, a thousand altitudes arise to which the 

 sea-fowl flock in their myriads as the seasons 

 revolve. 



At the rock stations in the far north of Great 

 Britain many of the rarer birds of the sea, which 

 occur on the English coasts only at irregular inter- 



