r34 ALLEN S NATURALISTS LIP.RARY. 



unusual bustle, suddenly changed the wonderful scene. The 

 Razor-bills, Guillemots, and Puffins were not afraid of us ; but 

 on the appearance of their well-known and irresistible enemies 

 the whole cloud threw^ themselves with one accord, as at the 

 command of a magician, into the sea, and the outlook was 

 clear and free. Innumerable black points, the heads of the 

 birds swimming in the sea, stood out distinctly from the water, 

 and broke up the blue-green colouring of the waves. Their 

 number was so great that from the top of the berg, which was 

 over three hundred feet high, we could not see where the 

 swarm ended, could not discover where the sea was clear 

 from birds. 



" The millions of which I had been told were really there. 

 This picture of apparent quiet only lasted for a few moments. 

 The birds soon began to fly ujnvards again, and as before 

 hundreds of thousands rose simultaneously from the water to 

 ascend the hill, as before a cloud formed round it, and our 

 senses were again bewildered. Unable to see, and deafened by 

 the indescribable noise about me, I threw myself on the ground, 

 and the birds streamed by on all sides. New ones crept con- 

 stantly out of their holes, while those w^e had previously 

 startled now crept back again ; they settled all about me, 

 looking with comical amazement at the strange form among 

 them, and approaching with mincing gait so close to me that I 

 attempted to seize them. The beauty and charm of life 

 shewed themselves in every movement of these remarkable 

 birds. With astonishment I saw^ that even the best pictures 

 of them are stiff and cold, for I remarked in their quaint forms 

 a mobility and liveliness with which I had not credited them. 

 They did not remain still a single instant, their heads and 

 necks at least were moved incessantly to all sides, and their 

 contours often showed most graceful lines. It seemed as 

 though the inoffensiveness w^ith which I had given myself up to 

 observing them had been rewarded by unlimited conlidence on 

 their part. The thousands just about me w^ere like domestic 

 birds ; the millions paid me no more attention than if I had 

 been one of themselves." 



Nest. — None, the egg being placed in a fissure of the cliff or 

 in a burrow. 



