in Freedom 145 



Some take wild headers down the face of the 

 rocks, floundering about and trying to flap their half- 

 grown pinions ; either taking refuge in some cavity 

 beneath the stones or gaining the sea, where they 

 swim away to try and join the old birds, who have 

 collected together on the water and are watching us. 

 Young cormorants are certainly extremely awkward 

 and ugly, with their soot-coloured bodies and huge 

 splayed web-feet. 



But out at sea they are picturesque-looking birds, 

 where they are collected on some group of boulders 

 over which the waves are dashing. 



Here they sit, extending their wings to dry in the sun. 



On all sides, after our landing is effected, hundreds 

 of razor-bills and guillemots fly heavily off^ the rocks, 

 taking, as they go, a downward course, until they are 

 supplied with an impetus sufficient to carry them out to 

 sea, from which they sometimes return in their flight, 

 and circle round with their small wings quickly beating. 



There is a long ledge deeply and narrowly indented 

 under huge stones, where a lot of guillemots have laid 

 their eggs. 



Clambering up to this with difficulty, I find the 

 birds still there, as if they flattered themselves they 

 couldn't be got at ; and as I look over the ledge, and 

 into the fissure, they all begin sidling away to an 

 opening at one end, through which they shuffle and 

 scramble one after the other, leaving a long row of 

 great pear-shaped eggs, some of which are a beautiful 

 turquoise blue, blotched over with deep brown at the 

 thickest end. 



K 



