9244 Birds. 
excursion trains” who otherwise would never have visited Flam- 
borough, and boats and guns are too readily obtained to give any 
chance of a quiet life to the poor sea-fowl. It is scarcely possible to 
take a stroll along the top of the cliffs, during any fine day in the 
summer months, without hearing the constant report of guns fired 
from boats below. It reminded me more than anything else of a rook 
shooting day in a well-stocked rookery. 
Many hundreds of kittiwake gulls are shot during the season for the 
sake of their skins, which are preserved and sent up to London, to 
fashion into the ornamental feathers used for ladies’ hats. This con- 
stant persecution of the birds must in time (as it has already done to 
the cormorants and great blackbacked gulls) drive the remaining sea- 
fowl to seek refuge in some other quarter less exposed to the ravages 
of man. Formerly great numbers of birds nested comparatively un- 
molested on the rocks in the immediate vicinity of the lighthouses ; 
but these cliffs being of low altitude and easily come at, the birds have 
been driven away. They are now only to be found, in any quantity, 
on the magnificent range of cliffs between the north landing at Flam- 
borough and Speeton. For some miles between these two places the 
cliffs rise perpendicularly to the height of between three hundred and 
four hundred feet; in some places higher. The face of these rocks is 
worn, by the action of many a wintry storm, into narrow ledges and 
shelves; and they are also intersected by deep clefts and interstices, 
affording ample room to the thousands of sea-fowl which resort thither 
in the spring. The constant wash of the waves has excavated the base 
of the rocks into deep caves and holes, in some places forming grand 
natural archways: these are the sea-washed cotes of the rock pigeon. 
I subjoin a list of the birds, which, with two exceptions to be men- 
tioned, came under my observation during a visit to Flamborough in 
the last fortnight of July. 
Jer Falcon. A fine specimen of the jer falcon, in immature plumage, 
was trapped a few weeks since on the Leckton Moors, near Picker- 
ing. It came into the hands of Mr. Jones, of Bridlington Quay, 
for preservation: he informed me that he sold it to Mr. A. Clapham, 
of Scarborough. I was unfortunate in being a few days too late to 
inspect the bird. 
Peregrine Falcon. By no means a rare visitant to these cliffs; more 
espevially seen, however, during the autumn and winter, doubtless 
attracted by the numerous rock pigeons. I was shown several stuffed 
specimens of the peregrine falcon killed at Flamborough. 
Kestrel. Not uncommon. 
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