202 A HISTORY OF 



more powerful in their appetites for prey, but have not sucli certain 

 methods of obtaining it. In general, therefore, the industry of this 

 tribe, and their audacity, increase in proportion to their imbecility ; 

 the great gulls live at the most remote distance from man ; the small- 

 er are obliged to reside wherever they can take their prey ; and to 

 come into the most populous places, when solitude can no longer 

 grant them a supply. In this class we may place the Gull, properly 

 so called, of which there are above twenty different kinds ; the Petrel, 

 of which there are three ; and the Sea-swallow, of which there are as 

 many. The gulls may be distinguished by an angular knob on the 

 lower chap ; the petrels, by their wanting this knob ; and the sea- 

 swallows by their bills, which are straight, slender, and sharp pointed 

 They all, however, agree in their appetites, and their places of abode 



The gull, and all its varieties, is very well known in every part of 

 the kingdom. It is seen with a slow-sailing flight, hovering ove' 

 rivers to prey upon the smaller kinds of fish ; it is seen following the 

 ploughman in fallow fields to pick up insects ; and when living ani- 

 mal food does not offer, it has even been known to eat carrion, anc 

 whatever else of the kind that offers. Gulls are found in great plenty 

 in every place ; but it is chiefly round our boldest rockiest shores tha 

 they are seen in the greatest abundance; it is there that the gui' 

 breeds and brings up its young ; it is there that millions of them are 

 heard screaming with discordant notes for months together. 



Those who have been much upon our coasts know that there are 

 two different kinds of shores ; that which slants down to the water 

 with a gentle declivity, and that which rises with a precipitate bold- 

 ness, and seems set as a bulwark to repel the force of the invading 

 deeps. It is to such shores as these that the whole tribe of the gull 

 kind resort, as the rocks offer them a retreat for their young, and the 

 sea a sufficient supply. It i? in the cavities of these rocks, of which 

 the shore is composed, that the vast variety of sea-fowls retire to 

 breed in safety. The waves beneath, that continually beat at the 

 base, often wear the shore into an impending boldness ; so that it 

 seems to jut out over the water, while the raging of the sea makes 

 the place inaccessible from below. These are the situations to which 

 sea-fowl chiefly resort, and bring up their young in undisturbed se- 

 curity. 



Those who have never observed our boldest coasts, have no idea 

 of their tremendous sublimity. The boasted works of art, the highest 

 towers, and the noblest domes, are but ant-hills when put in compa- 

 rison : the single cavity of a rock often exhibits a coping higher than 

 the ceiling of a Gothic cathedral. The face of the shore offers to the 

 view a wall of massive stone, ten times higher than our tallest stee- 

 ples. What should we think of a precipice three quarters of a mile 

 'n height 1 and yet the rocks of St. Kilda are still higher ! What 

 must be our awe to approach the edge of that impending height, and 

 to look down on the unfathomable vacuity below ; to ponder on the 

 terrors of falling to the bottom, where the waves that swell like moun- 

 tains are scarcely seen to curl on the surface, and the roar of an ocean 

 a thousand leagues broad appears softer than the murmur of a brook ! 

 it. is in these formidable mansions that myriads of sea-fowls are for 

 ever seen sporting, flying in security down the depth, half a mile be- 



