40 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



The smooth, short, sheep-nibbled, slippery turf slopes, 

 for some yards distant, down towards the sudden pre- 

 cipitousness of the craig, so that, with a brisk wind, 

 your footing, in such a situation, becomes unpleasantly 

 uncertain. 



On the first undoubted evidence of your unprivileged 

 intrusion, the birds, simultaneously taking flight in 

 myriads and myriads, fill the air around with their 

 wild and multitudinous cries, sailing in whirling circles 

 round your head in a manner that cannot fail to call 

 forth the envy and admiration of a pinionless biped 

 causing by their intricate and airy evolutions a percep- 

 tible dizziness of brain as you peer into regionless space 

 above. 



I have repeatedly noticed upon these occasions that 

 these birds never place themselves in such a position 

 that, were you to fire and kill one, he would fall upon 

 the land on which you stand. The whole time that I 

 remained upon this spot, with this vast assemblage of 

 sea-fowl so close and noisy, I could not have shot a 

 single specimen but would have fallen into the sea 

 below ; consequently I did not fire at all. 



On a subsequent visit to the spot, I found a pair of 

 peregrines (Falco peregrinus) breeding in the face of 

 the cliff. Their young were evidently hatched, as the 

 sharp, shrill, cheep ! cheep ! cheep ! of the female as 

 she continually disappeared and returned with food, 

 dropping like a stone over the edge of the rock, and 



