THE ISLE OF BIRDS 103 



sea-birds was his. For the body, it was not 

 so far out of the ordinary about the size of 

 a big and sturdy cockatoo white below and 

 blackish-brown above, sides of the face white, 

 and a dingy white collar on the neck : the 

 webbed feet of a duck ; the stiff, short tail of a 

 penguin ; very short, strong wings, and a 

 round head. But the beak was like a gaudy 

 caricature. Curved from base to tip like a 

 parrot's, it was as long and high as the head 

 which it seemed to overweight, and adorned 

 apparently aimlessly with exaggerated horny 

 ridges. Over each eye was a little wart-like 

 horn, and at each corner of the beak, where it 

 joined the skin of the face, a vivid red, wrinkled 

 excrescence, in shape a sort of rosette, of 

 skinny flesh. Serviceable, to be sure, this 

 beak was obviously, whether for burrowing, 

 fighting, or catching fish ; but it could be 

 imagined as performing all these offices equally 

 well without its monstrous eccentricities of 

 adornment. 



Everywhere in front of the cliff-face, over 

 the ledges, above the white shuddering of the 

 surf, and far out over the smooth leaden-grey 

 rollers, the air was full of whirling and beating 

 wings. These were the wings of the giant 

 gulls and the skuas. The puffins did no more 

 flying than was necessary swift and straight 



