DR Johnston's address. 5 



These are the only birds remarkable for their rarity, which have 

 occurred during the year ; for I do not remember that any such was 

 met with in our excursions. In that of June, made to Langleyford, at 

 the foot of Cheviot, our distinguished colleague, Mr Selby, entertained 

 some slight hopes of meeting with the ring-thrush {Turdus torquatus),' 

 which, it was supposed, might breed near this sequestered hamlet : but 

 the information of the respectable tenant proved the contrary ; for the 

 bird is seen there only in the later autumnal months, on its return 

 from still more inland and more remote moors. During our ascent of 

 Hedgehope on that day, the curlew {JYumem'us arquata) first, and, 

 somewhat higher up, the golden plover ( Charadrius pluvialis), uttering 

 as it flew from us its shrill plaintive cry, were seen in their breeding- 

 grounds ; and the blackcock {Tetrao tetrix) was heard harshly calling 

 to his mates. On this occasion, as on several previous ones, I was 

 struck with the cries of the birds we noticed : there was no sprightli- 

 ness in them, nor melody ; but all were plaintive, or rapid and harsh- 

 and tended to increase that still sobriety — that almost solemn mood — 

 which irresistibly steals over the mind of him who traverses these noise- 

 less, wide, dark-brown moors. The melody of the groves is not in 

 harmony with the scene ; and the warblers leave it willingly for haunts 

 nearer the cheerful buzz of man and civilization. But our excursion 

 in July presented us with a most remarkable contrast to the scenery 

 of the Cheviots : a wide and rough rolling sea, a coast fronted with 

 lofty, dark, and precipitous rocks, caverned with gloomy recesses, so 

 bold, so rugged, and naked, that Scotland scarce boasts one of superior 

 grandeur. And how diverse were its feathered tenants in appearance 

 and habits ! The slender-legged tribes of the moor, clothed in a 

 mottled plumage, were here replaced with birds distinguished by 

 short legs, strength of body, and by colours disposed in large and un- 

 mixed patches, often strongly contrasted: and while the former 

 wheeled round and about us in circles, muttering their cries on wing, 

 the latter flew out in a straight undeviating line, and silently. Nor 

 were they less distinguished by their voices ; for the cries of seafowl 

 are never plaintive, but most harsh, and most consonant with the 

 pictorial character of their haunts. Pennant has given a description 

 of these, so excellent, that I must be allowed to quote it here, with 

 only a very few alterations, to make it more exact to St Abb's Head, 

 the place of our visit. This magnificent promontory is a huge insula- 

 ted mass of trap rocks, whose seaward sides form precipices of vast 

 height, hollowed in man}- places into caverns, in which the wild pigeons 

 {Columha livia) build their nests, and nurture their young in safety, 

 amid the spray of waves that never sleep in rest. In some parts the 

 caverns penetrate far and end in darkness ; in others, are pervious, and 

 give a romantic passage by another opening equally- superb. Many of 

 the rocks are insulated, of a pyramidal form, and soar to a great height. 

 The bases of most are solid ; but in some pierced through and arched, 



