THE PUFFIN. 239 



Among the land-birds frequenting and building in the clitfs 

 that rise direct from ocean, are the innocent and handsome house- 

 martin, which, from its diminutive size compared with that of the 

 other feathered inhabitants of the place, almost appears, while 

 silently floating on the air about the summit of the stupendous 

 precipices, as some graceful form of the insect world. The chat- 

 tering jackdaw and the chough, with the kestrel, peregrine falcon, 

 and sea-eagle, are to be seen here. Of the last-named noble 

 species, five old birds — all now on the Horn — came under my 

 notice to-day, and for a long time I had an excellent and near 

 view of three of them, both on the ground and on wing. The 

 common buzzard, the rarven, and the grey crow ((7. comix), seen 

 by us on the Horn, doubtless all build amid the marine cliffs ; — 

 of the last-named we saw a dense flock of about forty on the 27 th 

 of June. The starling nidifies on some of the lower rocks of the 

 Horn, and the rock-dove in great numbers within the ocean- 

 washed caverns. 



Oyster-catchers are said to breed in some places on the rocky 

 flattened summits of lofty cliffs, perhaps 350 feet in height, on 

 which numbers of them appeared. 



On referring to the descriptions of similar haunts of rock- 

 birds on the coasts of England and Scotland, visited by Mr. 

 Waterton and Mr. St. John, we learn, as follows. In the vicinity of 

 Flamborough Head, the former author (himself characteristically 

 lowered down the cliffs) met with razorbills, guillemots, puffins, 

 kittiwakes, cormorants, and shags; and the land-birds breeding 

 there were peregrine falcons, ravens, jackdaws, starlings, and rock- 

 doves.* 



At the island of Handa, off the western coast of Sutherland, 

 Mr. St. John noticed all the preceding species, with the exception 



round the baso of tlie rocks. The kittiwake breeds so low down, that, after a great 

 storm, the gamekeeper has seen as many of these birds washed ashore dead as would 

 fill several carts ; — from what I myself saw of their breeding-places, and the vast 

 number of birds, this would doubtless occur. 



* ' Notes on the Haunts of the Guillemot, &c.,' in 'Essays Nat. Hist.' vol. i. 



