220 ALCTD.!':. 



tance of perhaps fifty feet ; — nearly all these cormorants are seated 

 on their nests, about forty in number. These are very large, and 

 composed of the roots or " runners" of the sea lyme-grass, Elpnus 

 arenarius, which is abundant on the neighbouring sands. They 

 are lined with the leaves of the same plant, and placed close to- 

 getlier, but without touching each other. All the old cormorants 

 are wholly black, no white patch behind the thigh or elsewhere, 

 and no appearance of a crest.''^ The usual number of young 

 birds is three, which are yet very small. They are all black, and 

 exhibit already a ludicrously capacious gape. In some nests 

 there are eggs without 'spots or markings of any kind ; in colour 

 and form like those of the common duck.f Temple Brig and 

 the slope above it are entirely covered with fine soft cushions of 

 the thrift, or sea-pink [Statice armeria), now exhibiting in pro- 

 fusion, from each verdant mass, its fine rose-coloured flowers. 

 The ox-eye, or white chrysanthemum {Chrysanthemum leucanthe- 

 mmn), grows abundantly, and is in full bloom on the little 

 patches of earth that rest on the face of the cliffs eastward of the 

 Temple. Looking in this direction, kittiwakes {Larus rissa) in 

 thousands are seen at one view upon their nests, which are placed 

 in single rows on all the narrow horizontal shelves of the mural 

 cliffs that afford sufficient depth, from the sea upwards, half- way to 

 the summit; every available spot is thus occupied. The nest 

 is very large, round in form — circular within — and fully three 

 inches in thickness. It is apparently composed of the Mymus 

 arenarius. The birds are as close together on their nests as 

 tliey can sit, and the lines of snowy whiteness — of various length 

 — which they present against the grey sterile surface of the chffs 

 have a very singular appearance, as strata of flints in a limestone 

 quarry are not more horizontally disposed. When the birds stand 

 up, and only then, for not one is absent from its nest (now mid- 

 day), the young can be seen, which are brownish-grey in colour, 



* In the plumage of Bewick's " Corvorant," as opposed to his " Crested Corvo- 

 rant," which is the same species in spring i)lumage. 



•}- Not less than a hundred cormorants were observed here, arranged in single file 

 on the rocks, on the 1st of August, 1850. — (Mr. R. Taylor.) 



