SEA-FOWL SHOOTING. 123 



ipon the narrow ridges before lie at all loosened his jSrm grasp of 

 ,ne rope, which he never altogether abandoned. I had previously 

 ;hrown myself upon my chest, to enable me to have a better view 

 )f him by looking over the cHtf, and certahily to see the dexterity 

 md bravery with which he threw himself from one aperture to 

 mother was truly grand. The trembhng roar of the Atlantic was 

 ■oamiug many hundreds of feet beneath, and dashing its curling, 

 3ream-iike surge against the dark base of the cM in sheets of the 

 nost beautiful white, while the herring and black-backed gulls, 

 ilteniately sweepmg past him, so as to be almost withui reach of his 

 irm, threw a wildness mto the scene by the discordant scream of 

 ;he former, and the laughing, oft-repeated bark of the latter. This, 

 lowever, he appeared entii-ely to disregard, and, continuing his 

 search, returnecf in about half an hour with seven or eight of the 

 itormy petrels tied up in an old stockmg and a pair of the Manx 

 )uffins, together with their eggs. The birds, he told me, he had no 

 lifiicuity in captui-ing. _ The eggs of the stormy petrel are sur^ 

 )risingly large, considering the diminutive size of the bird, being 

 IS large as those_ of the thrush. The female lays two eggs of a 

 lirty or dingy white, encii'cled at the larger end by a ring of fine 

 ust-coloured freckles. The birds merely collect a few pieces of 

 Iried grass, with a feather or two, barely sufficient to prevent the 

 iggs from rolling or moving on the rock." 



The Gull Family^ {Lams, Linn.). — Some sportsmen count eleven 

 lifferent species of this bird. Colonel Hawker maintains there are 

 hh-tcen. They have all, _ however, a great family resemblance. 

 Cheir leading characteristics are a compressed biU, elongated and 

 )ouited, with the upper mandible turned towards the end, and the 

 ower underneath forming a salient angle. Their nostrils, placed 

 owards the middle of the biU, are long, narrow, and bored 

 lirongh. Their tail is full, and legs rather long, and the thumb 

 hort. All the gull tribes are more or less objects of the gunner's 

 port, and the shooting of them is often attended with considerable 

 ixcitement and pleasure ; not so much on account of the birds 

 hemselves, considered in the light of game, as from the interesting 

 ocalities to which the sportsman is directed in the pursuit of them. 

 Chese birds generally congregate in vast flocks in those parts of 

 he coast of Great Britain that are high, abrupt, and little fre- 

 luented by either boats or land travellers ; and where, in fact, the 

 Tigged natui'e of the cliffs, and the air of solitude and desolation 

 iround, seem to impart to them ideas of comparative safety and 

 Retirement. To a man with a fowling-piece in his hand, and who can 

 ehsh the grand and sublime of natui-e under all aspects, we know 

 tf nothing more grateful, than a ramble along the headlands of the 

 soast in quest of these birds. Everything around is vast and im- 

 losing. The ocean imparts a solemn feeling over the most volatile 

 inderstanding, and directs the thoughts to objects of contemplation, 

 oth agreeable and improving. We dive into nature's secrets by 

 uch sporting rambles among the feathered tribes in this section 



