56 The Ornithology of the Dunbar Coast, by Robt. Gray. 



letters to the late Professor MacGillivray, East Lothian 

 has proved an increasingly fertile field of observation. The 

 late Dr Nelson, of Pitcox, and his brother, Mr John Nelson, 

 now also lost to science, did good service in forming collec- 

 tions and reporting on the occurrence of some of the rarer 

 birds of this shore and its neighbourhood ; and the late Dr 

 Turnbull contributed to ornithological literature a beauti- 

 fully illustrated Catalogue of the birds of the countj^ with 

 occasional references to what has been found on the Dunbar 

 coast. The district, as I have said, possesses not a few at- 

 tractions as bird haunts ; the Bass rock and neighbouring 

 islets with their wondrous hordes of native sea fowl on the 

 one hand, and St. Abb's Head and Fast Castle with their 

 beetling cliffs and similar nursery ledges on the other. The 

 intervening shores, especially those near the town, present a 

 succession of changes — frowning rocks, sandy bays, and 

 pebbled nooks ; scenes which appeal to the ornithologist in 

 all their varied aspects ; in sunshine and calm, when the 

 sea sleeps in wearied murmurings within the ridge of red 

 sandstone rocks forming a shore guard, and hundreds of 

 piping waders tell their varied names ; in gloom, when the 

 white-edged waves roll menacingly over the stones on the 

 sloping beach, and the young of the rock-bred birds swim 

 anxiously in their search for a quiet landing place ; in 

 storm, when the turbulent ocean shews itself in all its power, 

 throwing mass upon mass of wrathful spray on sands, walls, 

 rocks, and ruins, until the entire coast line is fringed with 

 wreaths of foam. Then the note of the Northern Hareld 

 strikes the ear, issuing from the midst of the wild waters — 

 its strangely concerted melodies forming a fitting accompani- 

 ment to the deep booming of the waves that beat upon the 

 beach. Then, too, may be heard the melancholy cry of the 

 Great Northern Diver, that weird " Herdsman of the deep," 

 whose shouts, from a distance, have been likened to the 

 despairing cries of a drowning mariner. All these sea 

 voices have been familiar to me from my youth. Here, I 

 had my first and perhaps most lasting impressions of scenes 

 which I in vain try to describe ; and, although, in later 

 years I have been charmed with the scenes of other shores, 

 none have impressed me more in their seasonal aspects and 

 general interest than the coast whose winged fauna I have 

 thus briefly recorded. 



