Birds. 4941 



A Glance over the Cliffs of Moher {County Clare, Ireland). — We bestowed our horses 

 within the accommodations so considerately provided for the traveller, and then we 

 slowly ascended the gradual slope, all unconscious of what lay beyond. But how shall 

 I describe the noble sight that burst upon us all at once as we topped the rise of un- 

 dulating turf strewn here and there with yellow mountain-pansies ? The feeling at first 

 of familiarity, as if it had been a scene we had visited before, and then the gradual awe 

 stilling the heart, as it broke upon the soul in all its reality and magnificence. The 

 dark wall that has defied the wasting ocean beyond the reach of history or of man — 

 bulwark of earth — champion of the land ! and the white birds, attendant spirits of the 

 precipice, a whirling maze beneath, around, above, all with ceaseless clamour of affec- 

 tion and anxiety — nor without reason. Marked you yon gang of men sitting in a 

 group, who seem so quietly at home, so thoroughly familiar with the wonders of the 

 place? they are not there for nothing. Let us approach them: the coil of polished 

 well-worn rope, the crowbar fixed firmly in the soil— the triple support of confederated 

 hands: it leads to a lower platform, and there you may see the reapers of that extra- 

 ordinary harvest as they sit, each ready to take his turn of duty. The poor kittiwakes 

 pay a heavy toll — eggs from the nest and young birds from the rock-ledges, noosed, as 

 of old, with rod and snare by the dexterous fowler — they are drawn up by twenties, 

 tucked under the belt of that man now hoisted up a mass of feathers. And why con- 

 demn them? theirs is the daring attractive life of the plunderer — appointed check of 

 nature : theirs, loo, are the qualities — n o mean ones — of courage, readiness and activity. 

 So fare ye well, brave cliffsmen ! at your adventurous trade, be the rope ever strong and 

 the hand firm that speed you on your perilous way. Close by, the cliff towers above 

 900 feet of sheer abyss, and a steady eye may dare survey that awful gulf over which it 

 is related that once two greyhounds were hurried by excess of ardour in the chase, and 

 over which an adventurous spirit may himself be swung, the darling and the wonder of 

 those rugged climbers, and it is an exploit worthy of the trial, to hang in daring glee, 

 with none but sea-fowl to whisper to his palpitating heart, to hang in space the aerial 

 conqueror of birds, while from above the careful guardians of the rope cheer and 

 encourage, with all the generous approval which a seaman will evince when trusting 

 the helm to no faint stranger's hand. It is a deed of enterprise worthy the zeal of an 

 ornithologist. A little further, let us look elsewhere at the fluttering clamorous gulls 

 and circling auks that start every moment from the cliff and describe short circuits, with 

 now a succession of rapid strokes and now an even swinging flight, the guillemots 

 browner, the razorbills blacker of the two, and the lesser puffin also (called "parrot" 

 here) tunnels his way to a secure retreat in the turf of the slopes and ledges : and the 

 chough you may chance to see, and the jackdaw and the rock dove, with earnest beat of 

 its hurrying wings ; and they will tell you of the eagle (H. albicilla) that shuns approach, 

 and lays his eyrie beneath some overhanging arch, secure from plunder himself though 

 he may not spare. And the gallant peregrine, relic of chivalry, as thou wert its com- 

 peer, crossed he not our sight as we skirted the edge — well known by his stalwart form 

 and knightly moustache ? How I rejoiced in the absence of the murderous gun, else 

 were the temptation perhaps too great. So gaze down once more ere we go ; note the 

 herring gulls, of superior size and hoarser challenge ; and on the black rocks, against 

 which the foam is spirting high, observe the great cormorants — seeming at this distance 

 no bigger than crows— till you see one start from his green repose and scurry along the 

 surface with no flagging pinion. And then the long sea line, which you think you 

 might look over from so high a stand, and far in the distance the lonely isles of Arran, 



