440 ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



water close at hand, now disappearing in the 

 holloAv, and now Hfted to the summit of the 

 rounded swell, the blue, red and yellow of the 

 curiously large parrot-like bill may be clearly seen. 

 The bill of the Puffin, indeed, is its most note- 

 worthy characteristic. In the winter the outer 

 sheath falls away, the colours become dim, and the 

 bill itself is found to be perceptibly smaller. 



ALany gulls, too, screaming hoarsely, soar about 

 the cliffs, alighting on the more prominent ledges 

 and on every broken pinnacle of rock. The Kitti- 

 wakes are the most abundant, but numbers of 

 Herring Gulls are usually abroad, together wdth a 

 few pairs of Lesser Black-backs. The Black- 

 backed Gulls do not appear to nest upon these lofty 

 rocks, but at the other extremity of the bay, on 

 the slopes of the lower clav cliffs, thev form large 

 and thriving colonies. 



The Kittiwakes, with their snowv heads and 

 breasts, delicate blue-grey mantles and black-tipped 

 wings, cluster close together on the shattered face 

 of the cliff, and on every inequality and slight pro- 

 jection which gives a holding, the tangled mass of 

 sea-weed which forms the nest, is lodged. 



Like that of the Kittiwake, the mantle of the 

 Herring Gull is of a fine blue-grey, with wings 

 black tipped, but the latter bird may be distin- 

 guished at once by his larger size, and by the spot 

 of orange-red on his yellow^ bill. Again, the legs 

 of the Herring Gull are of a pale flesh-colour, 

 whilst those of the Kittiwake are a blackish-brown. 



Many feathered visitors, not truly birds of the 



