26 INTRODUCTION. 



one lias many opportunities of observing the habits of birds, 

 which he would miss if he had no such object in view. 



A visit to some remarkable breeding-place of sea-fowl 

 will afford amusement and instruction. Gliding along the 

 base of the cliffs in a boat, you see the Kittiwakes scattered 

 in multitudes along the face of the rock, each on its nest, 

 their pure light plumage contrasted with the dusky tints 

 around them. Partially intermixed with these birds, but 

 generally occupying a higher station, are thousands of Auks, 

 ranged in lines, with their white breasts toward the sea. 

 Farther up are Guillemots in like numbers. Thousands 

 are flying in from the deep, where they have been fishing. 

 There they come, pack after pack, bouncing along on their 

 short rapidly-moving wings, rising in a curve as they face 

 the cliff, and alighting like a ball abruptly. High overhead, 

 Puffins, obscurely seen, are standing in groups near their 

 holes, which they have burrowed in the turf. Patches of 

 sea-campion, sea-pink, and grasses, stand out in luxuriant 

 tufts here and there. The rock in many places looks as if 

 white-washed with the dung of the numberless birds that, 

 year after year, have frequented it. When a shot is fired, 

 multitudes leave their seats, launch into the air, and wheel 

 away in circular flight, their mingling notes filling the 

 air with one shrill loud scream, in which individual cries 

 can scarcely be distinguished. A man is on the rock gather- 

 ing eggs ; and if you join him in this occupation, it will re- 

 quire due care to keep your footing. But here is a dark ca- 

 vern, at the mouth of which are stationed, like sentinels, 

 some sable-plumed birds, whose long necks writhe to and fro 

 as they survey us. We approach, and they fly overhead or 

 drop headlong into the water, dive, and, swimming under 

 us, reappear at some distance on the sea. Here, amid patches 

 of white dung-wash, a characteristic feature of such scenes, 

 are the clumsily constructed nests, containing each two or 

 three slender white eggs, or so many half-naked dusky young 



