128 THE BIRDS OF THE OUTER FARNES 



if harassed during the breeding season, changes its 

 nesting-place, often quite deserting an island. A few 

 years ago the bird was much more plentiful than it 

 now is on the Fame group ; but happily the colony 

 on the Wide-opens shows as yet no sign of early 

 extinction. 



Within a few hundred yards of us was the House 

 Island, with its historic buildings ; but a fine day, with 

 surroundings such as ours had been since we started 

 in the morning, slips by very quickly. The Megstone 

 Rocks lay a mile or two off, and we could not miss 

 them. If we were to catch the night express at 

 Belford, either dinner or the ruins must be sacrificed, 

 and to have hesitated in our choice would have been 

 an insult to the keen air of Northumberland. 



The Megstones are bare volcanic rocks, with no 

 vegetation on them but the seaweeds below high- water 

 mark and an occasional patch of lichen. The chief 

 rock is a breeding-place of Cormorants, no other birds 

 apparently venturing near it. A ship had a few weeks 

 before our visit been wrecked on the rock. The solitude 

 had been for some time disturbed, and we were warned 

 not to expect to see much ; but as we neared the rock 

 we saw heads on snake-like necks stretched up here 

 and there, and, as we watched our opportunity to spring 

 from the boat, a black cloud of Cormorants rose to- 

 gether within a few feet of us. 



Of the many allusions to birds to be found in Milton's 

 poems, there is scarcely one which is not more sugges- 

 tive of the study than of the open air. But there is 



