250 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



their young;, pursue their various avocations, and when 

 the cold nights of autumn apprise them of the ap- 

 proach of winter, when food would fail them in our 

 climate, they take their departure, and travel towards 

 warmer regions. 



While the inland districts are thus gladdened with 

 the return of these interesting birds, the shores of the 

 ocean swarm in many places with summer visitants. 

 The gannet, the different species of tern, the auk, the 

 guillemot, the puffin, the eider duck, and many other 

 birds, betake themselves to the rocky headlands, or 

 the remote islets, where they find a retreat, not 

 always secure from the violence of men, in which 

 they deposit their eggs and rear their young. 



To every one who derives pleasure from the contem- 

 plation of Nature, few sights can be more interesting 

 than that of one of the great breeding places which 

 occur here and there along our coasts. The descrip- 

 tion of one of these which we lately visited, may 

 afford some idea of the vast multitudes of birds that 

 resort to such stations. 



The island of Berneray, at the southern extre- 

 mity of the outer Hebrides, is of an elliptical form, 

 about a mile in length, and upwards of half a 

 mile in breadth. It presents the appearance of a 

 mass of rock considerably inclined, the northern 

 part dipping into the water, and the southern exhi- 

 biting an abrupt section, rising to the height of 

 several hundred feet. The rocks, viewed from the 

 sea, present a grand and very interesting spectacle, 

 exhibiting masses of inclined, perpendicular, and 

 projecting cliffs, smooth, largely fissured, or minutely 

 intersected. Their whole face, along an extent of 

 half a mile, was covered with birds, of which, not- 

 withstanding their immense numbers, there were 

 only four species : the guillemot, the auk, the puffin, 

 and the kittiwake. These birds inhabit the cliff, not 



