THE STORMY PETREL. 323 



me some from out its fissures. Accordingly, accoutred with 

 a rope of hemp and hogs' bristles coiled over his shoulders, 

 he proceeded to the cliff. Having made one end fast by 

 means of a stake, he threw the coil over the face of the rock, 

 and gradually lowered himself down, but with the utmost 

 caution and circumspection, carefully pressing his foot hard 

 upon the narrow ridges before he at all loosened his firm 

 grasp of the rope, which he never altogether abandoned. I 

 had previously thrown myself upon my chest, to enable me 

 to have a better view of him, by looking over the cliff; and, 

 certainly, to see the dexterity and bravery with which he 

 threw himself from one aperture to another, was truly grand. 

 The tumbling roar of the Atlantic was foaming many hundreds 

 of feet beneath, and dashing its curling cream-like surge against 

 the dark base of the cliff, in sheets of the most beautiful 

 white ; while the herring and black-backed gulls, alternately 

 sweeping past him so as to be almost in reach of his arm, 

 threw a wildness into the scene, by the discordant scream of 

 the former, and the laughing, oft-repeated bark of the latter. 

 This, however, he appeared entirely to disregard ; and con- 

 tinuing his search, returned in about half an hour, with seven 

 or eight of the stormy petrels, tied up in an old stocking, 

 and a pair of the Manks puffins, together with their eggs. 

 The birds, he told me, he had no difficulty in capturing. The 

 eggs of the stormy petrel are surprisingly large, considering 

 the diminutive size of the bird, being as large as those of 

 the thrush. The female lays two eggs, of a dirty or dingy 

 white, encircled at the larger end by a ring of fine rust-coloured 

 freckles. The birds merely collect a few pieces of dried grass, 

 with a feather or two, barely sufficient to prevent the eggs 

 from rolling or moving on the rock." 



The Cormorant. The Common Cormorant is familiar all round 

 the coast of England, and will even sometimes venture inland 

 or at any rate up the mouths of rivers. Captain Brown 

 mentions one that, many years ago, was seen resting upon 



