224 The Little Auk. [CHAP. XII. 
as the reward of their industrious and praiseworthy labor. 
I was so pleased, and even delighted, with the sagacity and 
perseverance which they had shown, that I should have 
considered myself as guilty of a crime had I endeavored to 
take away the lives of these interesting beings at the very 
moment when they were exercising, in a manner so happily 
for themselves, the wonderful instincts implanted in them 
by their Creator. When they appeared to have done and 
to be satisfied, I arose from my place of concealment, On 
examining the fish, I found it to be a specimen of the com- 
mon cod. It was nearly three feet and a half long, and it 
had been imbedded in the sand to the depth of about two 
inches.” 
One of Edward’s greatest pleasures was in rambling along 
the sea-shore, to observe the habits of the sea-birds. The 
multitude of birds which frequent the shores of the Moray 
Firth are occasioned by the shoals of herrings, which afford 
food not only for thousands of fishermen, but for millions 
of sea-birds. To show the number of birds that frequent 
the coast, it may be mentioned that during the storm that 
occurred in December, 1846, Edward counted between the 
Burn of Boyne and Greenside of Gamrie, a distance of 
about nine miles, nearly sixty of the little auk, which had 
been driven ashore dead, besides a large number of guille- 
mots and razor-bills. Numbers of these birds were also 
found lying dead in the fields throughout the county. 
And yet the little auk has a wonderful power of resisting 
the fury of the waves. ‘It isa grand sight,” says Edward, 
“to see one of these diminutive but intrepid creatures 
mancuvring with the impetuous billows of a stormy sea. 
Wave follows wave in rapid succession, bearing destruction 
to every thing within reach; but the little auk, taught by 
nature, avoids the threatened danger, either by mounting 
above the waves or by going beneath them, re-appearing un- 
hurt as they spend their fury on the shore. The eye for a 
time wanders in vain among the turbulent surge to catch an- 
