276 THE COUNTRY CLERGYMAN. 



geny remained until about five years ago; they 

 were of much annoyance to the light-keepers, 

 destroying their young tame rabbits, chickens, &c. 

 Every means possible, were used to lessen the num- 

 ber by poison, gun, and dog, and many were 

 killed ; at length the whole of them left the place, 

 and it is supposed all on the same night, not one 

 has been seen on the island since. It was evident 

 they had gone in a body to the nearest farm-yard, 

 where their depredations were great ; one stack of 

 corn being nearly all destroyed, and about eighty 

 rats killed from it. 



The lighthouse-keeper concluded his account, by 

 stating that the birds came to the rock on the 

 morning of the 1 1 th of February of the present 

 year, at 1 A. M. making a cheering noise as usual. 

 Not a bird was to be seen thereon the 10th, but on 

 the 1 1th, the bank and rocks were literally covered 

 with them. The pair of hawks and the crows also 

 arrived, and occupied the same spots. As one of 

 the men was going up the steps from the bridge, 

 a razor-bill dropped down close by him quite dead, 

 from a blow struck by one of the hawks. 



Dr. Hastings having received this account of the 

 winged inhabitants of the rock, questioned the 

 lighthouse-keeper respecting the arrival and depar- 

 ture of birds of passage. He said he was convinced 

 that the migration of woodcocks took place in the 

 night, as on several occasions they had been found 



