578 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



that it is able to recover a footing. But the birds thus densely 

 crowded upon the face of the cliff form merely a background 

 to a striking scene. Perhaps ten times their number are seen 

 swarming in endless confusion upward and downward, appear- 

 ing and disappearing from all sides, and at all heights, without 

 break or rest, like some countless and bewildering insect-swarm. 

 Long chains of birds, composed of loose groups of ten, fifteen, 

 thirty, and even a hundred individuals, keep coming up from the 

 sea with storm-like haste, sweep past their breeding stations in an 

 ascending curve, sending as they pass a hasty greeting to their 

 breeding spouses, and again turning seawards re-descend to the 

 surface of the water. In addition to these countless myriads of 

 birds swarming about in all directions in the air, equally innumer- 

 able long-extending companies are seen swimming near and far 

 upon the sea, apparently at rest, but nevertheless all the time 

 carrying on a most animated conversation in which everybody 

 seems to be having his say at the same time. 



It is, indeed, a fascinating picture which this breeding haunt of 

 the Guillemots presents to the eye ; rocked in one's boat, one may 

 watch for hours, without tiring, this scene of never-slackening activity, 

 and only reluctantly can one make up one's mind to leave it. 



When I came to the island, fifty years ago, there were several 

 other such breeding stations on the western side of the cliff: one 

 of these was near the lighthouse, to the outside of the picturesque 

 natural arch of rock known as Mohrmers Gatt ; another was on a 

 broad prominence adjacent to this arch, called Book-horn ; and a 

 third on a rock about half the height of this prominence, and quite 

 close to it, which is known as Heus-horn. At this latter spot, rows 

 of Guillemots used to sit at a height of only ten or fifteen feet from 

 the surface of the water, and would calmly look down upon the 

 boats which happened to row past beneath them. About fifteen 

 years ago, however, the large natural arch collapsed, and since that 

 time the Guillemots have also left the two other breeding stations 

 near it. Another colony used to breed on the face of a large 

 isolated rock at the northern extremity of the island, called the 

 Hingst i.e. Horse, and also on the outer face of another natural 

 arch similar to the first, and only separated from the Hingst Rock 

 by a narrow chasm. Both these places have, however, also fallen 

 in ; and the birds, thus deprived of all their former haunts, are now 

 restricted to the one single habitation on the steep and lofty wall 

 of the cliff. This, fortunately, is very firm, and has, so long as I 

 have known it, not undergone the least alteration ; hence we may 

 hope that countless generations of Guillemots may continue to 

 disport themselves there for many centuries to come, rejoicing in 



