THE BIRDS OF BEMPTON CLIFFS. 2 1 



thieves."* A climbing- gang goes systematically over its 

 ground day by day, economising time and labour as far as 

 possible by visiting the ledges when the greatest quantity of 

 fresh eggs is likely to be found upon them. Each ledge upon 

 this system is visited every third day, unless wet weather 

 should intervene, when they get behindhand, and many eggs, 

 having received a few days incubation, are spoiled for eating 

 purposes. Thev are then taken and used as food for pigs, 

 to induce the birds to lay again. When a ledge becomes 

 thin it is "fallowed " for a year, after which, the birds reared 



Fig. 13. — J. Hodgson Descending the Cliff. 



there having brought up the ground to its full laying strength, 

 it is "climbed" again. Some favourite ledges, however, arc 

 always crowded and will bear climbing every year. The 

 birds invariably come back to the ledges where they are 

 reared unless driven away by actual crowding. 



* Some fifteen years ago I can remember a scurvy trick played upon 

 a Bridlington gang. Having to come a greater distance, and happening 

 one windy morning after a stormy and wet night to come late to work, 

 they found almost all the ledges cleared. A council of war decided that 

 the wind must have cleared the ledges. The true culprits, who, more 

 from a spirit of mischief than anything else, had been beforehand and 

 climbed every ledge, were never discovered. 



