2908 Birds. 



merous crags and fragments of stone scattered about in every direc- 

 tion. These precipices last-mentioned are, of course, less perpendi- 

 cular and steep than the others. In a calm day, and with a small 

 boat, it is possible to land at the foot of almost all of them ; and, 

 from such a position, to look up at the immense and frequently over- 

 hanging wall affords a spectacle of no common description. The 

 ledges are so extremely narrow as to be scarcely distinguishable by 

 the naked eye ; and the numerous rows of birds which appear upon 

 them in regular order, the one above the other, from about the middle 

 to near the summit of the cliff, seem to the beholder as if they were 

 but a multitude of bats clinging closely to the surface, so that he can- 

 not figure to himself in what manner it is possible for them safely to 

 deposit their eggs and to hatch their young, on a space to all appear- 

 ance thus exceedingly contracted. The different species of birds 

 which are seen on the ledges, are the common guillemot (Uria Troile) 

 or queet, the razor-bill [Alca Torda), hawk or cooter, and the kitti- 

 wake [Larns tridactylus) or Kittie. They are all associated to- 

 gether ; but, so far as my observation goes, they are at the same time 

 in distinct uniform, and independent companies. First, for example, 

 may be observed a line of perhaps twenty or thirty razor-bills. These 

 may be followed by a dozen or two of kittiwakes ; and after them 

 may come a succession of guillemots. Sometimes, again, separate 

 ledges will be found occupied by separate species. The kittiwakes 

 take possession in preference of those ledges where there are naturally 

 tufts of grass, or where they can construct an artificial although a 

 rude nest of that material, as it is believed that upon such a surface 

 they uniformly deposit their eggs. The puffin (Mormon Fratercida), 

 or Tammy Norie, or, as it is sometimes simply called, the Tammas, is 

 also one of the sea-fowl now under consideration. When it breeds 

 on the same precipice with the birds already mentioned, it lays its 

 egg in fissures : these fissures are very narrow, although frequently 

 long. They extend a considerable way into the rock, and are gene- 

 rally horizontal, but occasionally vertical. Especial care seems to be 

 taken by the bird to avoid all such among them as may be liable to 

 be reached by the waves, even when the tide is at the very highest. 

 There is in this case but little appearance of a nest ; but, when in- 

 cubation is well advanced, a few grasses will be usually observed, in- 

 termixed with a sprinkling of feathers from the bird. In such fissures 

 as these, the nest can only be reached by means of a stick. The bird 

 sits very closely and determinedly upon it ; will not be induced to quit 

 it except by force ; and, with its singularly constructed and formid- 



