SEA-FOWL AND SAMPHIRE 5 



sea-fowl, which have made it their home for centuries. 

 The long, black, snaky heads and necks of the cor- 

 morants lined the highest shelves, and sea-gulls sat 

 quietly in groups and lines, like white doves against the 

 short, green turf. Lower down, the beds of samphire 

 hung in gentle curves one below the other, like the 

 " festooned blinds " now so common ; and among the 

 wreaths sat the white and shining sea-fowl. The cor- 

 morants soon took wing, and flew croaking in wedges 

 and lines out to sea ; but the gulls were tamer and less 

 inclined to move, though the whole colony raised their 

 voices in loud protest against our intrusion. Amid the ' 

 clamour and barking of the gulls, another sound was 

 heard, like hundreds of kittens mewing; and this, we 

 found, came from the young gulls on the lower ledges. 

 The greyish-brown of the young birds makes them 

 almost invisible against the grey chalk, which is, in 

 this part of the cliff, of a darker colour than elsewhere ; 

 and it was not until the anxiety of a pair of parent 

 gulls on one of the lowest ledges attracted our atten- 

 tion, that we discerned the young birds daintily walking 

 along the shelf to a point of greater safety. The 

 ravens had this year made their eyrie not in the chalk 

 crag, but in the red sandstone under " Red Cliff 

 Battery," nearer Sandown. The cliff is there so 

 precipitous, that it would be possible to drop a pebble 

 from the hand on to the beach beneath, which may 

 account for the safe up-bringing of the young ravens. 

 The nest no longer held the young ; but one of the 

 brood, apparently the sole survivor now that the pro- 



