218 EXCURSION TO GAMRIE. CHAP. XL 



nearly reached the highest point of Gamrie Head 

 without meeting with anything but the common 

 tenants of these rocky braes, when my attention was 

 attracted by the screaming of a number of birds at 

 the bottom of the cliff. On looking over I observed 

 that they consisted of several hooded and carrion 

 crows, together with two ravens, two Iceland gulls 

 (Laurus Islandicus), and a number of other dark- 

 coloured gulls, apparently immature specimens of 

 the great black-backed species, one of which, in per- 

 fect plumage, was standing and picking at an object 

 floating in the water close to the rock, and about 

 which all the other birds were screaming. It ap- 

 peared to me, and it afterwardsjproved to be the case, 

 that they were making food of the object about which 

 they were fighting ; but the black-backed bird 

 kept them all at bay, allowing none to approach, not 

 even the ravens themselves. 



"Having feasted my eyes for a while on the 

 Icelanders, the thought struck me that I would 

 descend the cliff in order to procure one of them if 

 possible, and also to get a nearer view of the object 

 which had drawn the various birds together. Ac- 

 cordingly, observing a narrow track near me, I com- 

 menced my descent, but I had only proceeded a short 

 distance when I found myself on the brink of a preci- 

 pice. I was about to return, when, accidentally 

 looking over, I observed a portion of the rock jutting 

 out a little beyond the one on which I stood, and 



