The Sea-birds’ Nursery 
with bones and feet. A puffin’s brightly 
painted beak is a common sight, to- 
gether with a lot of the bird’s black-and- 
white feathers scattered about, and its 
orange-coloured feet. This is the work 
of the peregrines, which have their eyry 
in the cliffs at a little distance, from 
whence they can harry the sea-fowl with 
impunity. For they are the masters of the 
coast, with none to dispute their sway, 
not even the lordly eagle. Their home 
is on some rocky shelf on the steepest 
part of the cliff, where it can only be 
reached by means of a rope. And on 
this shelf are first laid four richly marked 
red eggs. The young birds are clad in 
dirty white down, and soon grow apace, 
while the rocks around are strewn with 
the feathers and remains of their prey. 
Puffins and kittiwakes from the cliffs 
U 289 
