376 BRITISH BIRDS. 



upon the ground the eggs are easily picked up one 

 after another, in great numbers, as fast as they are 

 laid; but in robbing the nests built in the preci- 

 pices, chiefly for the sake of the birds, the business 

 wears a very different aspect: there, before the 

 dearly-earned booty can be secured, the adven- 

 turous fowler, trained to it from his youth, and 

 familiarized to the danger, must first approach the 

 brow of the fearful precipice, to view and to trace 

 his progress on the broken pendent rocks beneath 

 him: over these rocks, which (perhaps a hundred 

 fathoms lower) are dashed by the foaming surge, 

 he is from a prodigious height about to be sus- 

 pended. After addressing himself in prayer to the 

 Supreme Disposer of events, with a mind prepared 

 for the arduous task, he is let down by a rope, 

 either held fast by his comrades, or fixed into the 

 ground on the summit, with his signal cord, his 

 pole-net, his pole-hook, &c., and thus equipped, he 

 is enabled in his progress either to stop, to ascend, 

 or descend, as he sees occasion. Sometimes by 

 swinging himself from one ledge to another, with 

 the help of his hook, he mounts upwards, and 

 clambers from place to place; and, at other oppor- 

 tunities, by springing backwards, he can dart 

 himself into the hollow caverns of the projecting 

 rock, which he commonly finds well stored with 

 the objects of his pursuit, whence the plunder, 

 chiefly consisting of the full-grown young birds, 

 is drawn up to the top, or tossed down to the boat 

 at the bottom, according to the situation of con- 

 curring circumstances of time and place. In these 

 hollows he takes his rest, and sometimes remains 

 during the night, especially when they happen to 



