Bindon Hill 239 



ing upwards to the white cliffs, he sent the little 

 birds flying in all directions, then turned, — whether 

 with a victim in his claws I could not see, — and in a 

 moment, as it seemed, was full a mile away. This 

 is the Peregrine Falcon, who still holds his own, and 

 has somewhere every year a nest among these abrupt 

 cliffs. And but half an hour ago a Eaven passed 

 along the entire length of Bindon in little more 

 than a minute, — a rare sight, though once in April 

 I have seen and heard a pair circling round the 

 inaccessible cliff not far away to westward, where 

 that year they must have built their nest. 



The Gulls, of course, are Bindon's especial pride ; 

 but just now they are nearly all from home, gone 

 inland perhaps to feed on the newly-ploughed 

 fields. Only when the " schools " of mackerel have 

 come into the bay, darkening and making crisp the 

 water here and there beneath the cliffs where Gulls 

 and Cormorants breed together in spring, have we 

 seen a Herring-gull arrive mysteriously and suddenly, 

 hover over the disturbed water for a moment while 

 catching the whitebait which the mackerel are 

 chasing, and then settle down q[uietly on the wave 

 to swallow and digest. N"o other sea-bird seemed to 

 follow these shoals ; but the fishermen were waiting 

 for them with a huge net, and twice we were 

 there to see a great draught of fishes — more than a 

 thousand mackerel twinkling with prismatic hues 



