1854] "Hesperus" on the Cliff of Moher. 55 



signed "Hesperus," which he contributed to the " Zoolo- 

 gist" (vol. xiv., p. 4941), he thus referred to his recollec- 

 tions of the afternoon of July 26th, 1854 : 



How shall I describe the noble sight that burst upon us all at 

 once, as we topped the rise of undulating turf, strewn here and there 

 with yellow mountain pansies ? The feeling at first of familiarity, as if 

 it had been a scene we had visited before, and then the gradual awe 

 stilling the heart, as it broke upon the soul in all its reality and mag- 

 nificence. The dark wall that has defied the wasting ocean beyond the 

 reach of history or of man bulwark of earth champion of the land ! 

 and the white birds, attendant spirits of the precipice, a whirling maze 

 beneath, around, above, all with ceaseless clamour of affection and 

 anxiety, not without reason. Marked you yon gang of men sitting in a 

 group, who seemed so quietly at home, so thoroughly familiar with the 

 wonders of the place ? They are not there for nothing. . . . The poor 

 Kittiwakes pay a heavy toll, eggs from the nest and young birds from 

 the rock ledge, noosed, as of old, with rod and snare by the dexterous 

 fowler ; they are drawn up by twenties, tucked under the belt of that 

 man now hauled up a mass of feathers. ... A little further, let us look 

 elsewhere at the fluttering clamorous Gulls and circling Auks that start 

 every moment from the cliff and describe short circuits, with now a suc- 

 cession of rapid strokes and now an even swinging flight, the Guillemots 

 browner, the Razorbills blacker of the two, and the lesser Puffin also 

 (called Parrot here) tunnels his way to a secure retreat in the turf of the 

 slopes and ledges ; and the Chough you may chance to see, and the Jack- 

 daw, and the Rockdove, with earnest beat of its hurrying wings ; and 

 they will tell you of the Eagle (H. albicilla) that shuns approach, and 

 lays his eyrie beneath some overhanging arch, secure from plunder him- 

 self though he may not spare. And the gallant Peregrine, relic of 

 chivalry, as thou wert its compeer, crossed he not our sight as we 

 skirted the edge, well known by his stalwart form and knightly mous- 

 tache ? How I rejoiced in the absence of the murderous gun ; else were 

 the temptation perhaps too great. ... Is that a seal ? Your guide 

 hesitates, for it is no easy matter to distinguish him from the rock on 

 which he sits ; but they are common enough most days. Turn, then, 

 your attention westward, ye naturalists and sportsmen, that like some- 

 thing larger than gnats or diatoms for your quarry ; not Scotland only 

 is worthy an excursion. There are fewer species of birds, perhaps, 

 and less variety breeding in the inland lakes of Ireland ; but for one 

 grand feature the precipice breasting the Atlantic the place is well 

 worthy of your notice, and the Irish highlands offer, too, a little-explored 

 country. 



