312 THE BIRD WATCHER 
parallels are, I think¥ery interesting and instructive, 
but they are seldom dwelt upon. 
Thus far out of the path of what I am pledged to 
deal in, a fanciful comparison has led me; but I will 
go no further. Ne ultra crepidam sutor, etc., though, 
to be sure, I] am no more altogether naturalist than 
King Lear’s fool was “altogether fool.” So as, from 
king or emperor downwards, I have no respect for 
titles, it is not much wonder if I forget now and 
again to be subservient to that of my own book.' 
Yet to do so is fiddle-de-dee, for books and people 
both, in this world, are judged of as they are labelled 
—often getting labelled by accident—and though, in 
this little excursion into other realms, I have talked 
no more nonsense than any literary critic may, with- 
out at all committing himself—except fo nonsense, 
which doesn’t at all matter—yet I talk it where it 
will not be thought sense. To return then—for your 
reviewer bites the thumb at a digression—I noticed 
many other herring-gulls hovering over these puffin- 
haunted slopes, and that they live largely upon the 
young of these birds, as well as on young kittiwakes, 
I do not now doubt. I can see no reason why they 
should not lie in wait, and drag the former from 
their holes. I must watch for this. This reminds 
me of how often I have found the newly-picked 
remains of puffins on the cliffs and shore; but these 
were all of full-grown birds. What bird, in especial, 
1 But I needn’t have forgotten my own afterthought “—and Digressions.”’ 
Hurrah! That frees me, 
