KITTIWAKE GULL, 87 



" ' They hide the sun when they fly, they cover the skerries 

 when they sit, they drown the thunder of the surf when they 

 cry, they colour the rocks white where they breed.' I believed 

 the excellent Faber after I had seen the Eider-holms and Auk- 

 bergs, and yet I doubted, as every naturalist must, and there- 

 fore I ardently desired to visit Swartholm for myself. An 

 amiable Norseman with whom I became friendly, the pilot of 

 the mail steamer by which I travelled, readily agreed to row me 

 over to the breeding- place, and we approached the promontory 

 late one evening. At a distance of six or eight nautical miles 

 we were overtaken by flocks of from thirty to a hundred, some- 

 times even two hundred, Kittiwakes flying to their nesting- place. 

 The nearer we approached to Swartholm the more rapid was 

 the succession of these swarms, and the larger did they become. 

 At last the promontory became visible, a rocky wall about 

 eight hundred yards long, pierced by innumerable holes, rising 

 almost perpendicularly from the sea to a height of from four 

 hundred and fifty to six hundred feet. It looked grey in the 

 distance, but with a telescope one could discern innumerable 

 points and lines. It looked as though a gigantic slate had 

 been scratched all over with all sorts of marks by a playful 

 giant child, as though the whole rock bore a wondrous decora- 

 tion of chains, rings, and stars. From the dark depths of large 

 and small cavities there gleamed a brilliant white ; the shelving 

 ledges stood out in more conspicuous brightness. The brood- 

 ing Gulls on their nests formed the white pattern, and we 

 realised the truth of Faber's words, 'they cover the rocks when 

 they sit.' 



" Our boat, as it grated on the rocky shore, startled a number 

 of the Gulls, and I saw a picture such as I had seen on many 

 eider-holms and gull-islands. A shot from my friend's gun 

 thundered against the precipice. As a raging winter storm 

 rushes through the air and breaks up the snow-laden clouds till 

 they fall in flakes, so now it snowed living birds. One saw 

 neither hill nor sky, nothing but an indescribable confusion. A 

 thick cloud darkened the whole horizon, justifying the descrip- 

 tion, 'they hide the sun when they fly.' The north wind blew 

 violently and the icy sea surged wildly against the foot of the 

 cliffs, but more wildly still resounded the shrill cries of the 

 birds, so that the truth of the last part also of Faber's descrip- 



