108 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



below. This he did ; and as the bullet struck and 

 chipped the very parapet of the ledge itself, the bird, 

 flurried as I had hoped would be the case by this 

 sudden and unexpected act of molestation, dropped 

 from the ledge too suddenly to avail itself of that 

 leverage or lifting power which the action of the legs 

 affords to a bird when calmly rising from a stationary 

 position, and sank a considerable distance before it was 

 able to mount or feel at home upon the wing. It was 

 just at this upward bend of its flight that I fired, and 

 so effectually did the shot tell, that down came my 

 bulky friend with a whiz and a speed that would have 

 been attended with additional disaster had he dropped 

 upon the heads of any of us, and, just clearing the 

 boat, fell plump into the liquid sea, enveloping us, as 

 he vanished, in a cloud of spray. After a few seconds 

 he rose to the surface, and I bagged my first cor- 

 morant. We now rowed along the cliff for some 

 distance each way, and I fired some fifteen or twenty 

 shots in succession, without the least effect, the shot 

 striking and glancing off their feathers like so much 

 sand as they crossed and recrossed above my head, 

 flying to and from the ledge. 



I am strongly inclined to think that, in many 

 instances, the cartridges " balled " that is to say, they 

 retained their solid form, without permitting the shot 

 to spread a fault which is not uncommon ; and as I 

 generally shot well ahead of my bird, by reason of the 



