ROCK DOVE. 271 



Lark. Individuals vary in length from 13 to 14 inches, and 

 in the extent of their wings from 24; to 27. 



Habits. — At the western extremity of Ben Capval, a pro- 

 montory of one of the remote Hebrides, is a vast mass of rock, 

 broken by gaps and fissures into projecting crags and sloping 

 shelves, and looking as if originally produced by the separation 

 of a portion of the mountain which had sunk into the depths of 

 the ocean that heaves its billows against the rugged shores. 

 At the summit is an aggregation of angular fragments, the ter- 

 mination of an elevated ridge, and midway down is a green 

 slope, horizontally traversed by several paths formed by the 

 sheep, which at all seasons, but especially in spring, are fond 

 of rambling among the crags, in search of fresh pasturage. 

 The declivity terminates on the sinuous and angular edge of 

 precipices several hundred feet in height, near the upper part 

 of which a pair of White-tailed Eagles have fixed their abode, 

 while the crevices are here and there peopled by starlings. 

 The shelves of those rocks are totally inaccessible by ordinary 

 means, although an adventurous shepherd or farmer sometimes 

 descends on a rope held by half a dozen people above, to de- 

 stroy an eagle's nest, or rescue a sheep which has leaped upon 

 some grassy spot, and is unable to reascend ; but on one side, 

 by a steep and slippery descent in a fissure, one may penetrate 

 to the base, where he discovers a hole in the rock barely laro-e 

 enough to admit him on his hands and knees. This hole is 

 the entrance of a narrow passage in a crevice roofed with fallen 

 blocks. On one hand is a recess, in which a person might 

 recline at full length, and which was actually employed as 

 a bed by Mr. INIacleod of Berneray after the battle of Cul- 

 loden; and a few yards farther, the crevice opens into an 

 irregular cave communicating seaward with the open air, and 

 formed by a rent in the rock, filled above with large blocks 

 that seem ready to fall. The heavy surges of the Atlantic 

 continually dash against a heap of stones, which partially block 

 up the mouth of the cave. On this heap the Crested Cormo- 

 rants nightly repose, and in summer rear their young. The 

 little shelves and angular recesses of the roof and upper 



