1506 Thk Zoologist— Jan'Caky, 18G9, 



how buo^'anlly they swim in this kind of weather, and many another 

 little trait interesting to none bnt him who looks on and calls himself 

 a naturalist. * * * * Perhaps it was all the watching — perhaps 

 seeing such banqueting going on around — made me feel inclined for a 

 raid- day meal, a thing I had not calculated on, expecting but a 

 morning watch. Emptying my flask, and with a piece of" twist" in 

 my mouth (I abhor the habit), I lay ruminating the tobacco and my 

 thoughts together, the former hinting of sleep, the latter all verged on 

 the depression of a wild-fowl shooter's life. A cormorant awoke me 

 drying his wings as he stood on the stern of the boat : my opening 

 eyes alarmed him, and we gave each other gaze for gaze. Whether 

 he took my boat for a piece of floating timber, a rock or a buoy, 

 I cannot say ; but surely no eye ever bore the look of bewildered 

 terror his did as he scuttled off dashing up the water with his wings.* 

 Obstinacy is not the frailest fibre of my nature, nor determination the 

 least brittle ; but that day — oh, Boreas, cold-breathed deity ! how you 

 tried me ! Nature, too, sweet dame ! how hard thou strovest to save 

 thy "precious chicks" by sending to my arms and to prowl around 

 my floating concealment great northern and redthroated divers in all 

 the uncertainty of plumage ! Such dire temptation ! yet still no shot 

 disturbed the unceasing sound of the disquiet sea. No, not even 

 when that speckled monster in his spring moult shook the brine from 

 his wings into my face. No stampeding after so long a wait. * * * 

 Twilight is again rising in the east, and is slowly casting its shadows 

 on the still struggling sea. Ten hours are a long cold watch ; but still 

 the uncertain wheel with its blind-folded girl are drawing to his doom 

 one of the most beautiful of created things. Silently he rises from the 

 depths of the dull dark waters, a being so wonderful, so beautiful, so 

 animated, that I cannot raise my gun — it would be murder. Silently 

 he glides unharmed into the mysterious depths, by a dive so liquid 



* A cormorant once perched himself on my back, as I lay concealed on a rock 

 enveloped in a drab driving-coat, which so closely resembled the rock in colour that 

 even he was deceived, and, taking my back as the highest pinnacle, accommodated 

 himself accordingly : neither did he discover his error till my hand grasped him by 

 the legs. I have frequently had cormorants and shags perched around me within a 

 few feet ; but their suspicions seemed generally to be aroused by human smell, unless 

 I had rubbed iodine on some part of my clothes. It is a most ludicrous thing to see 

 them walking around one within a few feel, shooting out their long necks and staring 

 with their fierce green eyes. Whether it is from the natural loneliness of sea-birds' 

 haunts, they do not seem to apprehend danger like land-birds, but when they do see it 

 they are generally far more wary. 



