SEA-FOWL AND THE STORM 19 



suffered in no way from the wintry weather, and the 

 ravens, which, according to tradition, always chooSe the 

 site for their nest on New Year's Day, were playing 

 and croaking in solemn gambols in the air, and evidently 

 enjoying the annual renewal of their courtship, which 

 is the pleasant custom of birds which pair for life. A 

 few hours of storm broke up this sociable company. 

 Even before dawn, the screams and calls of gulls flying 

 round the houses and buildings had given warning that 

 something had happened to disturb the usual order of 

 life upon the shore ; and as the darkness gave place 

 to uncertain light, their white forms were visible dimly 

 drifting and circling among the trees, or soaring almost 

 motionless against the steady current of the gale. 

 These gulls were all of the smaller and weaker kinds, 

 mostly black-headed gulls, in wniter plumage ; the 

 larger sorts had not yet succumbed to the force of the 

 gale, but were flying high and steadily in noisy packs 

 along the line of shore. On the edge of the cliffs, 

 the sustained strength and violence of the wind was 

 hardly less evident to the human spectator standing on 

 the verge, than to the fowl which were struggling to 

 maintain their usual place in the air between the 

 summit and the sea. The gale still maintained its 

 steady mechanical pressure, without gust or flaw, and 

 the larger gulls were giving an exhibition of their 

 powers of flight. A pair of the great black-backed 

 gulls were the only fowl which still seemed able to 

 disregard in a measure the force of the wind. They 

 still maintained a place well out at sea, flying low 



