MULTITUDE OF BIRDS. 37 



the other, like people holding an animated conversation. 

 They have white cheeks, with a black hood, which seems 

 fastened under the chin with a band of the same colour. 

 A few of the delicately white kittiwakes* were perched 

 here and there on a projecting crag ; and, scattered at re- 

 gular intervals, like stern, upright, solitary sentinels, stood 

 the corvorants, spotting with black the whole surface of the 

 cliff. There seemed little disposition on the part of any 

 one species to consort with another : though crowded toge- 

 ther on the cliff, yet each species kept in degree separate : 

 willock crowded willock ; puffin, puffin. A noise, as one 

 might suppose like that of disembodied spirits in purga- 

 tory, issued from every part of the rock ; whether it pro- 

 ceeded from the razor-bills, willocks or gulls, we could not 

 make out; but, of all the horrid and piteous groanings I 

 have ever heard, these were the most so. Perhaps it was 

 only a morning hymn of thankfulness and happiness ; per- 

 haps the soft note of love ; perhaps the united cry of thou- 

 sands of the young for food. Being sufficiently near to 

 see very clearly the whole mass of living creatures before 

 us, the fishermen suggested that a single barrel should be 

 fired at random, at the same time they both gave a tre- 

 mendous shout. Words cannot describe the scene that 

 followed : corvorants, ravens, gulls, kittiwakes, puffins, 

 razor-bills, guillemots, all left their stations ; the very sur- 

 face of the cliff came towards us. The remaining ban-els 

 were soon emptied, and all was one wild uproar : the sky 

 was positively darkened ; the air filled with heterogeneous 

 sounds : the screams, the calls, the groans of the birds ; - 



* Mr. Yarrell informs us (Brit. Birds, iii. 446) that this bird breeds in these 

 cliffs every year, in great numbers, but I am inclined to think this is not the 

 case ; the bird to which he alludes is probably the herring-gull. E. N, 



