1 82 THE LAND'S END 



been blowing half a gale from the sea when I went 

 down to the rocks to get a good mouthful of air 

 before it was dark. There were the gulls at the 

 usual spot ; and no sooner had I climbed into a 

 sheltered nook among the rocks than they were all 

 up floating overhead, swooping and rising, and pour- 

 ing out their insistent loud anxious angry cries. For 

 they were just beginning to nest on the ledges of the 

 cliff beneath me and were troubled at my presence. 

 In spite of the very cold wind and the growing ob- 

 scurity, when the sun had gone down, I kept my 

 place for upwards of an hour, and for the whole of 

 the time they continued soaring and screaming above 

 me : now with extended motionless wings seeming 

 not to move yet mounting all the time, higher and 

 higher, until they would be four or five hundred 

 yards above me and would begin to look very small ; 

 then down and down again in the same imperceptible 

 way, but sometimes descending with an angry rush 

 until they were no more than thirty or forty yards 

 high and one bird among them would make a violent 

 swoop to intimidate me, coming to within a couple of 

 yards of my head with loud swish of wings and 

 sudden savage scream. I noticed that the swoops 

 were all made by one bird, that this same bird acted 

 throughout as fugleman and leader, that whenever 

 the others began to drift away, further and further 

 apart, and their cries grew fainter and less persistent, 

 he or she reanimated them and brought them back 

 with a fresh outburst of fury, emitting louder screams 

 and dashing down in a more violent manner. The 



