232 ALCADJE. 



resting in its habits from the associations connected with it, 

 the razor-bill is an attendant upon the lofty precipices which 

 occur around our island, and is equally abundant about the 

 basaltic columns of the north as the granite ranges of the 

 western coast. Observed and studied in their solitary breeding 

 haunts, few can form the most remote idea of the magnificence 

 which greets the observer in the neighbourhood of a breeding 

 station. Flocks of various species, flying in long strings 

 close to the water, and, rising on the wing as they approach 

 the cliffs, all settle without the slightest noise ; bending over, 

 we observe them ranged in lines along each flat tabular pro- 

 jection, preening their feathers, and sitting upright hatching 

 their single egg. The outer rocks at the base we observe 

 white and spotless, covered with hundreds of sea-gulls, in such 

 contrast with the black side of the rock, as it were overspread 

 with snow, outrivalling the white foam of the waves which 

 surround it ; lines of cormorants stoop forward, in their pe- 

 culiar manner of standing like so many projecting ornaments 

 on a balustrade. There is no alarm or disturbance to intrude 

 upon this carnival of the breeding season ; but let a gun be 

 discharged, and instantly the entire precipice seems alive : 

 hundreds of guillemots, razor-biUs, and puffins glancing down- 

 wards to the water, flocks of cormorants, with their long necks 

 outstretched, fly off close to the water's edge, and settling 

 down when sufficiently remote from danger ; whilst at the 

 same instant, like ten thousand snowflakes, kittiwakes (viewed 

 from the distance above) wheel round in circles, their con- 

 fused screaming scarcely distinguishable from the seething of 

 the ocean. Overhead some patriarchal raven croaks hoarsely 

 and angrily at our intrusion, whilst four or five kestrels appear 

 on their motionless wings like so many fixed objects against 

 the sky ; each pinnacle of the rock is surmounted by a troop 

 of jackdaws, their sidelong looks directed upon us, and chat- 

 tering loudly, as if to silence the harsh grating cry of the 

 starlings beside them. 



Beautiful as such a sight must be, however imperfect in its 

 description, it is pitiable when we reflect upon those solitudes 

 invaded by boats full of persons who form parties to destroy 

 those birds, offering neither an opportunity to display the 

 skill of the shooter, nor, when shot, of the slightest value as 

 an article of food. Unfortunately, never glutted by destroy- 

 ing, they cover the sea with their quivering forms, causing at 

 the same time the loss of the lives of young depending upon 

 the parent birds. Much as writers may object to the battue 

 of game in an over-stocked preserve, yet there is a possible 



