266 THE LAND'S END 



And shout they did, their loudest, and in the 

 middle of their shouting performance a jackdaw, 

 detaching himself from a company of thirty or forty 

 birds wheeling about overhead, dropped plump down 

 on to the rock. Instantly the gull dashed at and 

 drove him away, but no sooner was he back on his 

 rock than he found the daw back too, and had to 

 hunt him away again, and then again to the ninth 

 time. And at last when he had been mocked nine 

 times he became furious and set himself to give the 

 insolent daw a lesson he would not forget : over the 

 sea and land and along the face of the cliff he chased 

 him, and up into the sky they rose and down again, 

 the daw at his greatest speed, the pursuer screaming 

 with wrath close behind him, but he could not catch 

 or hurt him, and at last giving up the chase returned 

 to alight once more on his rock. But the daw had 

 followed him back, and no sooner had the gull folded 

 his wings than down on the rock he dropped once 

 more and sat there, a picture of impudence, eyeing 

 the other's movements with his little white mocking 

 eyes. What will happen now ? I asked myself. But 

 the gull was not going to be made a fool of any 

 more ; he put up with the insult, and after two or 

 three minutes, finding he was to have no more fun, 

 the daw flew off to rejoin his companions. 



Sea-birds, visible from the headlands, are common 

 enough throughout the cold season, but after mid- 

 winter their numbers increase, until at last you may 

 see the travellers passing by in small flocks of a dozen 

 to a hundred or even two hundred birds, almost 



