NETTING THE BIRDS. 37 



properly be called indigenous to our shores. We 

 afterwards made closer acquaintance with the species. 



The shearwater is said to breed in the rocks here- 

 abouts; but we did not notice it, nor do I know of 

 which species it is. Nearly at the edge of the slope 

 we observed a stout iron rod erected, standing some 

 ten or fifteen feet high. On inquiry we found that 

 this, with a corresponding one at some distance, is 

 used for the support of a long but narrow net, which 

 is stretched along like a wall at the edge of the preci- 

 pice, to intercept the puffins. These birds, when they 

 fly, shoot down- in a straight line, just sufficiently 

 above the ground to clear the rocks and hillocks ; they 

 thus strike the net, and are caught. They are also 

 taken in numbers by dogs, which run upon them 

 before they have time to fly; and in other modes, 

 chiefly for the sake of their soft and abundant feathers. 



From the spot where we now stood there extended 

 a considerable space, almost covered with the wild 

 hyacinth, as we could see by the fruit-bearing stalks. 

 The contrast which this large belt presented when in 

 flower, with the thrift which occupies as exclusively 

 the range below it, was described to us as very curious 

 and pretty ; the whole forming two paraUel zones, the 

 one of blue, the other of pink. Large beds of coarse 

 sorrel were prominent in the vegetation here ; and the 

 crevices and bases of the rocks were fringed with the 

 singularly-cut leaves of the buck's-horn plantain, grow- 

 ing in unusual luxuriance. The pungent, peppery 

 scurvy grass we also found very fine. 



