HAWKING 245 



brow of the cliff that the air was deflected ii))- 

 wards. The great snowy birds were circling 

 about on their outstretched pinions, which were 

 held motionless except for the slight adjustments 

 needed from time to time by the varying gusts. 

 Many of them passed within fifteen feet of me, as 

 I sat along the dwarfed spruces on the brink of 

 the cliffs, so that I could study every movement. 

 One bird that I kept within my vision soared in 

 circles, perhaps three hundred feet in diameter, 

 with never a flap of his wings except for a 

 moment when he attempted to alight near his 

 nest on a ledge. Ten times he essayed a landing, 

 but it was not until the eleventh circuit that the 

 conditions were entirely to his liking and the task 

 was accomplished. On each of the last three 

 rounds he executed an additional smaller circle, 

 thus completing a perfect figure of eight. It was 

 a beautiful demonstration of the use made by 

 birds of ascending currents of air. 



Near this same island at Perce is a rose-colored 

 peak, the Montaigne Rouge or Pic d'Aurore 

 which rises seven hundred feet sheer from the sea. 

 About its precipitous sides herring gulls were al- 



