THE BASS ROCK 221 



going one way and others another, while still more 

 are crossing and recrossing in their flight to and from 

 the cliff. ;The eye. becomes bewildered. 'by. the maze 

 of birds, and every other sound is deadened by their 

 cries. Quarr-quarr some are calling, while the rest 

 join in with the more shrill scream ki-u, ki-u. One 

 flies near us, flops on to her nest, and then, through 

 seeing us, is startled. The result is almost comical, 

 for with a scream she leaves in a greater hurry than 

 she settled, and in her excitement pushes her egg 

 over the ledge. The egg drops, just strikes a jagged 

 edge, and falls fifty feet more on its journey, and 

 smashes with a red mess near another bird, which 

 looks up inquiringly to see what is coming next As 

 no more eggs fall, she turns her head, and gives a 

 significant quarr, which sounds much like an ironical 

 cheer. 



We remain still. Slowly the birds return, and 

 several plates are exposed. I tried with more or 

 less of success to obtain some pictures of the birds 

 in flight. When photographing these it is easy to 

 realise their swiftness of flight. The slightest hesi- 

 tation in releasing the shutter means that the bird 

 is far out of the range of the lens. Some which 

 I took were found on development to be just on 

 the extreme edge of the plate ; but when I exposed 

 these I thought they were on the other side. Those 

 birds in the distance seem to be flying slowly, but 



