1889-90-] Round abojit the Northern Cliffs. 375 



being frequently in accessible places, while the divers choose 

 situations that would baffle the most skilful climber, and 

 generally beyond gun-shot. At a great altitude razor-bills 

 are ranged along narrow ledges, as close as they can comfort- 

 ably pack themselves, where in the distance, bolt upright 

 with long narrow bodies and white breasts, dazed and dude- 

 like, they resemble rows of bottles bearing white labels that 

 have been shelved by human hands. In flying down they 

 tilt themselves over with great rapidity, and fall for a foot 

 or two like an inanimate object, before expanding wings that 

 are extremely small for the size and still more so for the 

 weight of the bird. Eazor-bills, and indeed all the diver 

 tribes, spend their entire existence in and between the sea 

 and the face of the cliff. They never appear inland, nor even 

 on the summit of the rock. The distance between the water 

 and the cliff is covered in a straight flight at a regular angle, 

 for they seem incapable of making gyrations. Most of them 

 build no nest, nor hatch more than one egg in a season, which 

 is large in proportion to their size. They would, indeed, have 

 difficult}^ in keeping a second or third warm, their legs being 

 situated so near the extremity of the body that they lie or 

 rather sit over the egg on this part, propped up as it were by 

 the tail. Consequently, when alarmed by any extraordinary 

 noise, such as the report of a gun, which re-echoes from rock 

 to rock and makes a terrific sound, the tail as they leave the 

 nest hurriedly catches the egg, and draws it over the ledge. 

 In this way a shower of eggs may be brought down in the 

 proper, or rather the improper, season. The shells, while 

 extremely thick in some cases, are, as might be expected, in- 

 variably smashed, even when eggs fall into the sea. 



It is interesting to observe the several customs of the various 

 kinds of birds in their colonies. In the nesting-season many 

 of them seem to reverse the usual order of things, — the gre- 

 garious, as crows and starlings, for example, displaying a solitary 

 disposition, while the solitary often build in companies, with 

 the advantage that where a single couple would grievously 

 fail, they are able to repel the attacks of enemies. Among 

 such there is the peregrine falcon, the neighbourhood of whose 

 nest under a projecting ledge at a great height is avoided as a 

 plague spot. Nearly all these rock- and cave-dwellers regard 



