The Sea-birds’ Nursery 
just out of reach of the breaking waves 
in ordinary weather. But if a gale 
comes on many of them must be swept 
out of their nests and drowned. 
The storm petrels, which flit over 
the huge waves many miles from land, 
looking like web-footed martins, come 
ashore to lay their eggs in the holes 
among the stones and rocks ; and where 
the sea has hollowed out great caves 
in the sides of the cliffs they are in- 
habited by the rock-pigeons and the 
shags. So that on the whole the rocky 
cliffs and islands off the coast are more 
thickly inhabited during the summer 
months than are the leafy hedges and 
woods and fields of the country. There 
are no songsters among them. Com- 
pared with the nightingale and thrush 
their voices sound hoarse and _ rude, 
X 297 
