Introduction. 



I AM about to describe the particular species of 

 Natatores, or Swimmers, mostly seen here on Holy 

 Island and the Fames, and whose whole life and 

 business is among the waters. 



From the insular character of this place these are con- 

 spicuously numerous in a fauna so limited; and while 

 thousands in summer speaking of the British Isles as a 

 whole seek our precipitous coasts and headlands as 

 breeding stations, others, scarcely less numerous, flock in 

 winter from their more northern incubations, and fill our 

 bays and marine inlets. 



The contrast of these localities at the different seasons is 

 most striking; rocks standing far in the ocean's void, and 

 precipices of the most dizzy height, to which all approach 

 by land is cut off, possess a dreary solitude for seven or 

 eight months of the year ; a few cormorants seeking repose 

 during the night, or some gulls claiming a temporary 

 shelter or resting-place from the violence of the storm, are 

 almost the only, and then but occasional, tenants. 



In the throng of the breeding season a very different 

 picture is presented : the whole rocks and sea and air are 

 one scene of animation, and the various groups have 

 returned to take up their old stations, and are now 

 employed in all the accessories of incubation, affording 

 lessons to the ornithological student which he will in vain 

 look for elsewhere ; the very rocks are lighted up, and 

 would seem to take a brightness from the hurry around, 

 while the cries of the inhabitants, discordant alone, 

 harmonise with the scene. 



