98 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



eggs, with heads turned seaward, as numerous and 

 as crowded as the spectators in a theater at a first- 

 night performance. They cackle to each other from 

 neighbor to neighbor and seem to be engaged in an 

 animated conversation, as a diversion from the 

 tedium of prolonged incubation. All around the 

 cliff, on the bosom of the waters, swimmers of all 

 kinds dive and dabble, chasing, pecking, and beating 

 one another. Others fill the air with their hoarse or 

 shrill cries, going unceasingly from sea to nests and 

 from nests to sea, calling to their mates, wheeling 

 around above them, caressing their little ones, play- 

 ing with their brothers, and showing in a noisy and 

 innocent way their fears and wants, their joy and 

 happiness. To describe the agitation, confusion, 

 noise, cries, croakings, and whistlings of these count- 

 less birds of all shapes and colors and styles, is quite 

 impossible. The hunter, dizzy and stunned, knows 

 not where to fire in this living whirlpool; he is in- 

 capable of distinguishing and still more of following 

 the bird he wishes to aim at. Wearied by vain ef- 

 fort, he directs his fire at the very midst of the 

 cloud. The shot is sped. Immediately confusion is 

 at its height ; clouds of birds, perched on the rocks 

 or swimming on the water, take flight in their turn 

 and mingle with the others ; a deafening discordant 

 clamor rises to the skies. Far from dissipating, the 

 cloud grows thicker and whirls about still more. 

 Cormorants, at first motionless on the rocks betwixt 

 wind and water, become noisily excited; sea-gulls 

 fly in circles about the hunter's head and strike 



