248 Among the Birds in Northern Shires. 



summit, those that are standing or sitting, keep up 

 a never-ending chorus of harsh cries. As we wander 

 to and fro inspecting the dwellings in this curious 

 city of birds the indignant owners bark defiance with 

 sparkling eyes, and only tumble off their solitary egg 

 when prompted by feelings for their own personal 

 safety. They are quarrelsome birds too, possibly 

 because so very overcrowded, and fights and spar- 

 rings are continually taking place. Every now and 

 then two birds will each seize the other in its power- 

 ful bill and go tumbling over the cliffs together, not 

 to separate until they have perhaps fallen a hundred 

 feet or so, when they will part, and soon lose their 

 identity among the drifting crowd that circles about 

 the face of the cliff in never-ending activity. All 

 the time of our stay birds are coming and going, 

 dropping lightly on to the land or soaring upwards 

 into the air; whilst the sea below is well sprinkled 

 with birds, and some distance down the Firth many 

 others may be seen busily engaged in fishing. The 

 scene becomes still more animated when the young 

 are hatched. At first these are ugly, ungainly-look- 

 ing objects, blind, and covered with dark-gray skin. 

 This, however, is soon clothed with dense down of 

 dazzling whiteness, which in its turn is succeeded 

 by a speckled plumage brown spotted with white. 

 The young birds pass through several stages of 

 plumage before they acquire the white livery charac- 



