150 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



the sea to feed its young, and we can watch the whole 

 performance. The old bird, with head down, wide- 

 open mouth and flapping wings, is surrounded by 

 scuffling, fluttering young, which put their heads one 

 by one into its mouth and seize the savoury morsels 

 from its pouch. The newly-hatched young have 

 bare, purplish skins, and are ugly as juvenile harpies. 

 The whole affords a scene of novel though malodorous 

 interest. 



Apart from the true sea-fowl, there are other birds 

 which share their haunts, living sometimes upon the 

 most neighbourly terms with the toilers of the deep, 

 at other times as undesirable hangers-on of whose 

 presence the colony would gladly be rid. To the 

 latter class belongs the Peregrine Falcon, which may 

 often be found breeding in a haunt of sea-birds in the 

 midst of the most thickly-populated ledges. Its 

 harsh outcry is heard above the general clamour and 

 as it passes with a bold sweep out to sea, sometimes 

 making a feint of stooping at a slow, heavy flying 

 cormorant to the consternation of the latter, the lazy 

 gulls are soon left behind. Aloft, Kestrels show the 

 silvery underside of their wings as they glide and 

 swerve, having as neighbours the Rock Dove and 

 the sable Chough. The Rock Dove, ancestor of our 

 tame pigeons, is so often found intermixed with stock 

 escaped from neighbouring dove-cotes, and more or 

 less reverted to type, that we shall scarcely find the 



