190



Adliii,



you know all the beauties of a bird till you have watched it from above.

There was one great rock out a short distance from shore, quite

impossible to scale, and inhabited by hundreds of Gulls, Razorbills, Shags,

and Cormorants. What hours we spent watching them, and how

fascinating it all was ! On one occasion a full-grown Gull seized

another (which was peacefully sunning itself on a rock) by the wing

and held on remorselessly. The victim struggled and pulled without

any effect. After at least ten minutes the tormentor let go. There

seemed to be no animosity displayed afterwards, so perhaps it was a

token of affection, but it looked extremely painful. The young Gulls

were in all stages, from little balls of grey down to large ungainly

youngsters just able not to fly ; and our amusement was great one

day to see mother Gull administer a hearty cuff to an adventurous

youngster, who on a windy day was trying his wings in imminent

danger of being wafted into space.


Oh ! the delight of a fluffy baby when it stretched what it

called “ wings ”, and actually left the earth for an inch or two! I

wonder how many do get blown away ? I found one starving to

death with a broken wing, and as it was out of reach one could only

hope a Black Back woidd come and put an end to its misery. Further

along the coast were a pair of Ravens, and another of Peregrines, not

forgetting innumerable Pipits, Larks, Whinchats, Stonechats, and

Wheatears, which kept one always amused by their efforts to disguise

the family. On one occasion I was searching for a rare flower, when

I heard “ chack ! chack ! ” and saw a cock Wheatear hovering and

dipping angrily over a depression in the ground. I “ froze ” to see

what it was about, and along came father Stoat with a fat Rabbit; an

awkward parcel, which had to be dropped several times before home

was reached. It made one marvel at the courage of small birds, and

reminded me of an incident I had just seen in a friend’s garden. A

pair of Blue Tits had built in a box on the house, under which a large

yellow cat took up her quarters, with the idea I suppose of catching

a baby if it should fall out. This was more than mother could stand,

so she fetched father, and these two balls of blue and green tossed and

swooped, and swore to such good purpose that the cat was driven off

defeated. I watched in fear and trembling, for they almost settled on



