ENGLISH BIRD-LIFE 



405 



Bird-egging on Bempton Cliffs 



About 130,000 Murres' eggs are gathered here yearly. A 

 on the face of the cliff 



dimmer " may be seen 



haunts of these boreal water-fowl. They may be found in fa- 

 vorable localities, from the Scilly Islands to the Hebrides, 

 but a variety of circumstances led me to the Bempton Cliffs 

 at Flamborough Head in Yorkshire, the Fame Islands, off 

 the Northumberland coast, and Bass Rock, in the Firth of 

 Forth ,and I am assured that no ornithological pilgrim will 

 go far from the Mecca of his hope if he follows this route. 



At the Bempton Cliffs, which may be reached from Brid- 

 lington, one may see the men go down the precipitous chalk- 

 headlands, from three to four hundred feet, on a rope, to 

 gather Murres ' eggs, while their mates, three to the gang, 

 with heels dug into oft-used hollows, stolidly lower or raise, 



