Till!; PUFFIN. 225 



motion, however great in reality, appears but slow ; nearer, 

 groups of porpoises or grampuses may exhibit their dorsal fins 

 above the surface as they proceed on their rolling course ; or aloft, 

 the gannet majestically poise himself ere he strike into the deep. 

 That beautiful sight, a " play of gulls," will doubtless be wit- 

 nessed at one or more parts of the surface to which shoals of 

 small fish have arisen. Landward, the rapid flight of innumerable 

 little parties of guillemots, razorbills, and puffins, as they fly, 

 chiefly in single file, to or from the cliffs, or over the sea, will be 

 observed. In purity of hue, similar to, and in number less only 

 than the flakes of a snow-shower, the gulls, roused off their eggs or 

 young, appear from base to summit of the cliff's, while jetty cor- 

 morants, with necks straight-outstretched, fly to their congregated 

 nests. The blue rock-dove will be seen on wing to and from the 

 caverns, and perhaps the dark-hued peregrine falcon, or the eagle, 

 making a death-swoop in the vicinity of its eyrie. Any descrip- 

 tion of the effect of the mingling voices of myriads of birds of 

 various species, in such a scene, would be vain. 



On the 28tli we had the gamekeeper at the Horn lowered 

 down the precipitous cliffs to the eastward of Horn Head, to a 

 nest of the sea-eagle, from wliich he brought up two eaglets ; — 

 the particulars of the exploit have been described in Vol. I. 

 p. 15. On the following day we went to the cliffs adjacent 

 to the eagle's eyrie, in the hope of procuring young peregrine 

 falcons, but were unsuccessful, in consequence of the rock pro- 

 jecting so much above the nest as to render it unapproachable : 

 we saw the old pair of birds. A mile westward of the Head, a 

 colony of cormorants {Phalacrocomx carlo) came in view, their 

 nests being placed on the broad and flat top of a jutting rock, or 

 " bench," as it is here called, on the sea-side of the Temple Brig. 

 Tliis "temple" is a rocky headland, standing out to sea, and 

 pierced entirely through by a lofty arch whose base is waslicd by 

 the ocean ; hence it bears the name of the Temple " brig," or 

 bridge ; — the arch is sometimes called also " the door " of the 

 Temple. 



As noted when looking down upon the colony at the dis- 



VOL. III. Q 



