Birds. 2907 



course of society. But, with respect to sea-fowl, nothing of this 

 nature can occur. The rocks on which they breed, will, we have 

 reason to think, stand firm in all their magnificence while time con- 

 tinues to endure ; against them the hand of man, however powerful, 

 will never be lifted up ; and adequate and practicable protection from 

 the law is the only thing which is required, not only to preserve, but 

 yearly to increase the numbers of those confiding strangers which 

 come among us at the appointed season from more southern climates, 

 to engage in the important duty implanted in them by their Creator, 

 of continuing their kind. It is surely painful to think, that the recep- 

 tion which they meet with from those who boast of that reason which 

 the Almighty has seen proper to withhold from them, is, in a multi- 

 plicity of cases, a wanton, a cruel, and a long protracted death. 



The precipices, which during the breeding-season are more parti- 

 cularly resorted to by the sea-fowl on the coast of which we are 

 speaking, commence a little to the eastward of the fine promontory 

 known by the name of Cruivie-head ; and they extend for a consider- 

 able way, in the same direction and with more or less of interruption, 

 towards the fishing village of Peunan. Of some of them, the surface 

 is almost entirely naked from the bottom to the top, presenting a suc- 

 cession of horizontal fissures and ledges, resembling a gigantic wall 

 of Cyclopean structure. Others are partially marked with patches of 

 vegetation ; and a few are covered over with rich and luxuriant grass, 

 amid which are interspersed a variety of sea-shore plants,* and nu- 



* Among these may be enumerated Arenaria marina (Sea Sand-wort) ; Silene 

 maritima (Sea Campion) ; Cochlearia officinalis (Common Scurvy-grass). A belt or 

 band of this plant runs up the middle of the precipice, where the razorbills and kitti- 

 wakes are principally to be found. It is well known to the country people for its an- 

 tiscorbutic properties : by them it is termed Screebie girss, a name in which an 

 Englishman would probably have some difficulty in recognizing the words scurvy 

 grass. Statice Armeria (Common Thrift, or as it is here called, the Sea Daisy) ; Plan- 

 tago maritima (Sea Plantain). The habitat of which we are speaking seems so 

 favourable ito the development of this plant, that the leaves of the specimens are 

 nearly as broad as some of those of the Plantago lanceolata, which last is known over 

 all this part of the country by the strange and apparently unintelligible name of Carl 

 doddie. Saxifraga opposilifolia (Purple Saxifrage) : this is considered a rare plant, 

 especially in such a habitat. It was long believed by botanists that it was to be found 

 only in mountainous districts, and at a distance from the sea. Saxifraga hypnoides 

 (Mossy Saxifrage, or Ladies' Cushion) ; Rhodiola rosea (Rose Wort). For the iden- 

 tification of these^plants, I have been indebted to Alexander W. Gardiner, Esq., of 

 Greenskairs, a proprietor in the Parish of Gamrie, and in whose company I had the 

 pleasure of making the excursion of which I am speaking. 



