226 HILLSIDE, ROCK, AND DALE 



the poor creature squeals and squars ; but this does 

 not help her, and after a little more stretching she 

 is pitched ignominiously over the cliff, and flies 

 away, as one can only hope, a wiser and apparently 

 a longer bird. Next time she sits on a nest I will 

 be bound she takes care it is the right one. 



It seems to me quite impossible to judge of the 

 number of birds on this rock.' Some say there are 

 fifty thousand pairs, but I should think this to be 

 too low an estimate ; for in addition to the great 

 flocks flying around, and the vast crowd sitting on 

 the east side alone, there are enormous numbers 

 swimming on the sea. These stretch away on all 

 sides ; in places the surface is white with them, and 

 far away in the distance other groups to the unaided 

 eye look like sparkles on the water as the sunbeams 

 fall on them. Large steamers resembling small boats 

 cut a pathway through the groups, when some birds 

 dive and others fly from the water, and look no larger 

 than swallows from our high coign of vantage. If 

 we go to the top of the rock and look north, east, or 

 west, we still see these white dots stretching far away 

 seawards. After we have exposed all of our plates 

 we find a suitable ledge, and sit and watch this busy 

 scene, and endeavour to get it permanently photo- 

 graphed on our mind. 



Immediately below, numbers of puffins are flying 

 and swimming; some are darting rapidly from sea 



