CHAPTER VIII. 



BIRD-LIFE UPON THE CLIFFS. 



A LARGE proportion of the Devonshire coast is 

 composed of rolling precipitous downs and long 

 reaches of cliffs, many of them hundreds of feet in 

 sheer depth. It would be difficult to find more 

 grandly romantic scenery round the English coast, 

 many of the headlands being exceptionally fine, 

 jutting out in rugged majesty to the blue waters of 

 the Channel, or receding into deep land-locked 

 bays surrounded by wooded hills and dales and 

 some of the fairest and richest pastures in the 

 world. But, singular to relate, these majestic cliffs 

 appear to have little attraction for sea-birds, and 

 the entire coast of the mainland of Devonshire 

 cannot boast a single grand haunt of these fowl. 

 The only place approaching to the vast bird 

 colonies of more northern coasts is Lundy Island, 

 whilst the cliffs of the south coast of the county, 



