The Zoologist— December, 1867. 1009 



striving to breach these solid bastions ; and well have they done 

 their work, now the white limestone cliffs are a ruin ; mighty isolated 

 columns of chalk, once portions of the cliff, now standing alone, the 

 outposts of the slowly retreating land. Here the wave has worn a 

 deep and narrow gorge far inland, there again the cliff rises beyond 

 the coast line, as yet unsubdued ; its base, however, we perceive is 

 worn completely through, forming a mighty archway, through which 

 the sea is ever racing in the wiklest confusion. Give it time and it 

 will fret away the seaward pillar, and then the face of the cliff will 

 shoot forward and one more bastion will have been carried. 



It was dark when I turned homewards along the cliffs. The wind 

 had risen, sweeping upwards, moaning along this broken and deserted 

 coast in a most melancholy cadence ; drifting inward the gray sea fog, 

 which in a few minutes wrapped the headland as in a shroud ; even 

 the blaze of the lighthouse was obscured — 



" The white mist, like a face-cloth to the face, 

 Clung to ihe dead earth, and the land was still." 



That night an 800-ton barque went on shore within a quarter of a 

 mile of the light-house. It proved a fortunate circumstance for the 

 fishermen, who got £200 for getting her off the rocks, which, thanks 

 to the high spring tide, they did before morning, and £35 more for 

 taking her to Sunderland. 



October 15th. Saw at the house of Mr. Bailey, two skuas, shot off 

 this coast on Saturday, the 12th. Both were young birds— the larger 

 of the two Lestris pomarinus, the other L. Richardsonii. The 

 pomarine skua was procured in a curious manner— Mr. Bailey had 

 shot at and slightly wounded a kittiwake, which fell at some distance 

 from his boat; before he could get near it the disabled bird was 

 attacked and killed by the skua ; it speedily, however, fell a victim to 

 its temerity, and on the approach of the boat was shot, clinging to the 

 body of the gull. On the same day Mr. Bailey saw a Buffon's skua 

 in mature plumage, but failed to bag it. Many hundreds of kittiwakes 

 were seen about the headland on the 14th and 15th, and I was told 

 that on the latter day upwards of one hundred were shot and brought 

 in by one boat. I deeply regret to write that this graceful and trustful 

 gull is threatened with speedy extinction at this famous breeding- 

 place; thousands have been shot in the last two years to supply the 

 "plume trade." The London and provincial dealers now give one 

 shilling per head for every " white gull" forwarded ; and the slaughter 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. II. 3 Q 



