CH. VI. NEST OF WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. 103 



the white -tailed eagle. The old birds flew far 

 away immediately, and I only occasionally saw 

 them as they soared high in the air. The nest was 

 so completely under a shelf of rock that nothing 

 but the ends of the outer sticks could be seen. 

 I had not time to make any decided trial to get 

 at it, as I had promised to be with Mr. M'lvor 

 at six o'clock; and my intention of visiting the 

 place the next day was frustrated. 



The rocks are curiously indented by the sea ; in 

 one place the waves have cut a kind of deep crevice 

 the whole height of the cliffs, for a good distance 

 into the island, through the narrow entrance of 

 which the swell was roaring with a noise like 

 thunder. At another part there is an island, or 

 stack, as it is called, within a stone's throw of the 

 mainland, but quite isolated. It is "in the shape of 

 a sugar-loaf, with a flat summit of perhaps twenty 

 yards across. The top was covered with green 

 herbage, and swarmed with birds of different kinds. 

 Amongst them were great numbers of black-backed 

 sea-gulls, both the greater and the lesser. 



In the quieter parts of the cliffs were rock- 

 pigeons and cormorants ; neither of these birds 

 seemed inclined to associate much with the crowd 

 of sea-fowl which filled the greatest part of the 

 rocks. Their stench alone might drive away so 



