260 Wild Ducks, Water-Birds, Sea- Fowl. 



countless flocks. There is a very fine range of rocks 

 beyond Hastings which they much affect, and another 

 near Ramsgate, of which we give here a little drawing. 

 That lovely bird, the great northern diver, is to be 

 seen at many places on the coasts of Devon and 



COAST SCENE, WITH SEA BIRDS. 



Cornwall, and right well worthy he is of being seen. 

 Hardly less so the lovely, great, black-backed gull, 

 which is more common in the south. Here is an 

 admirable picture of it from the pen of one of our most 

 gifted early ornithologists : — 



"The contrast between the dark purple tint of his 

 back and wings, and the snowy white of the rest of 

 his plumage, with the bright carmine-patched yellow 

 of his powerful bill, and the delicate pinkish hue of his 

 feet, render him an object at all times agreeable to the 

 sight. No sprinkling of dust, no spot of mud, ever 

 soils his downy clothing; his bill exhibits no tinge 

 derived from the subject of his last meal, bloody or 

 half putrid though it be; and his feet, laved by the 

 clear brine, are beautifully pure. There he stands on 

 the sandy point, the guardian, as it were, of that flock 



