BIROS. 3S7 



attentive to the various sounds that gather on every side, above 

 and below, may raise the mind to its highest and noblest exer- 

 tions. The solemn roar of the waves swelling into and subsid- 

 ing from the vast caverns beneath, the piercing note of the gull, 

 the frequent chatter of the guillemot, the loud note of the hawk, 

 the scream of the heron, and the hoarse deep periodical croaking 

 of the cormorant, all unite to furnish out the grandeur of the 

 scene, and turn the mind to him who is the essence of all sub- 

 limity. 



Yet it often happens that the contemplation of a seashore 

 produces ideas of an humbler kind, yet still not unpleasing. 

 The various arts of these birds to seize their prey, and sometimes 

 to elude their pursuers, their society among each other, and their 

 tenderness and care of their young, produce gentler sensations. 

 It is ridiculous also now and then to see their various ways of 

 imposing upon each other. It is common enough, for instance, 

 with the arctic gull, to pursue the lesser gulls so long, that they 

 drop their excrements through fear, which the hungry hunter 

 quickly gobbles up before it ever reaches the water. In breeding 

 too they have frequent contests ; one bird who has no nest of 

 her own, attempts to dispossess another, and puts herself in the 

 jilace. This often happens among all the gull-kind: and I have 

 seen the poor bird, thus displaced by her more powerful invader, 

 sit near the nest in pensive discontent, while the other seemed 

 quite comfortable in her new habitation. Yet this place of pre- 

 eminence is not easily obtained ; for the instant the invader goes 

 to snatch a momentary sustenance, the other enters upon her 

 own, and always ventures another battle before she relinquishes 

 the justness of her claim. The contemplation of a cliff thus 

 covered with hatching birds, affords a very agreeable entertain- 

 ment; and as they sit upon the ledges of the rocks, one above 

 another, with their white breasts forward, the whole group has 

 not unaptly been compared to an apothecary's shop. 



These birds, like all others of the rapacious kind, lay but few 

 eggs; and hence, in many places, their immber is daily seen to 

 diminish. The lessening of so many rapacious birds may, at 

 first sight, appear a benefit to mankind ; but when we consider 

 liow many of the natives of our islands arc sustained by their 

 flesh, either fresh or salted, we shall find no satisfaction in think- 

 ing that these poor people may in time lose their chief suiiport. 



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