24 SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN 



birds at any distance, and next to impossible to 

 force the cormorants from the shelter of the caves. 

 In a cavern less exposed to the rolling swell, 

 a pair of shags were perched on a point of rock. 

 The boatmen clapped their hands and shouted, 

 but both birds dropped into the terrific boiling 

 caldron below. They remained so long in this 

 whirlpool that we fancied they had escaped out 

 to sea. At last they emerged and took post on 

 the same ledge. Kelly then threw a piece of 

 wood at them. One dived, but the other flew 

 out, and was shot by my son. As its neighbour 

 did not show again in the cave, it no doubt 

 escaped into the sea by a long underwater swim. 

 The cormorant we secured was a male, in the 

 richest green, with a spring tuft in perfection. 



The black guillemot was not visible to-day, 

 but a pair of peregrines flew out screaming from 

 their eyrie, the sharp flicker of their wings con- 

 trasting with the solemn flap, flap of the sea- 

 birds. 



The ebbing tide made our landing on the 

 May for a trial of the cormorant roosts rather 

 difficult. On our way we called at the light- 



