324 EXCITING SCENES AT THE BREEDING SEASON. 



while, nearer shore, thousands in summer seek precipitous 

 coasts and headhmds as breeding stations. 



In winter, others, scarcely less numerous, flock from their 

 more northern homes, and fill our bays and marine inlets. 



A writer describes an interesting spectacle which met 

 his gaze after mounting a rock at Saldanha Bay, near the 

 Cape of Good Hope. 



*' All of a sudden there rose from the whole surface of the 

 island an impenetrable cloud, which formed, at the distance 

 of forty feet above our heads, an immense canopy, or rather 

 sky, composed of birds of every species and all colors : cor- 

 morants, sea-gulls, sea-swallows, pelicans, and, I believe the 

 whole winged tribe of that part of Africa, were here assem- 

 bled. All their voices, mingled together and modified 

 according to their different kinds, formed such a horrid noise 

 that I was obliged every moment to cover my head to give 

 a little relief to my ears. The alarm that we spread was so 

 much the more general among the innumerable legions of 

 birds as we principally distured the females, which were 

 then sitting. They had nests, eggs, and young to defend. 

 They were like furious harpies let loose against us, and their 

 cries rendered us almost deaf. They often flew so near us 

 that they flapped their wings in our faces, and, though we 

 fired our pieces repeatedly, we were not able to frighten 

 them; it seemed almost impossible to disperse the cloud." 



Many of the precipitous rocks and islands of our own 

 country present greatly exciting spectacles at the breeding 

 season. Myriads of ocean birds, 



* ' Ranged in figures, wedge their way, 

 Intelligent of season, and set forth 

 Their airy caravan. High over seas 

 Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing 

 Easing their flight. The air 

 Floats as they pass, fanned by unnumbered plumes." 



Certainly not the lenst interesting of marine birds is the 



