THE KOCK DOVE. 17 



its billows against the rugged shores. At the summit is an aggregation of angular 

 fragments, the termination of an elevated ridge, and midway down is a green 

 slope, horizontally traversed by several paths formed by the sheep, which at all 

 seasons, but especially in spring, are fond of rambling among the crags, in search 

 of fresh pasturage. The declivity terminates on the sinuous and angular edge of 

 precipices several hundred feet in height, near the upper part of which a pair of 

 White-tailed Eagles have fixed their abode, while the crevices are here and there 

 peopled by starlings. The shelves of those rocks are totally inaccessible by 

 ordinary means, although an adventurous shepherd or farmer sometimes descends 

 on a rope held by half-a-dozen people above, to destroy an eagle's nest, or rescue 

 a sheep which has leaped upon some grassy spot, and is unable to reascend ; but 

 on one side, by a steep and slippery descent in a fissure, one may penetrate to the 

 base, where he discovers a hole in the rock barely large enough to admit him on 

 his hands and knees. This hole is the entrance of a narrow passage in a crevice 

 roofed with fallen blocks. On one hand is a recess, in which a person might 

 recline at full length, and which was actually employed as a bed by Mr. Macleod, 

 of Berneray, after the battle of Culloden; and a few yards farther, the crevice opens 

 into an irregular cave communicating seaward with the open air, and formed by a 

 rent in the rock, filled above with large blocks that seem ready to fall. The heavy 

 surges of the Atlantic continually dash against a heap of stones, which partially 

 block up the mouth of the cave. On this heap the Crested Cormorants nightly 

 repose, and in summer rear their young. The little shelves and angular recesses 

 of the roof and upper parts of the cavern are tenanted by pigeons, the light blue 

 of whose plumage has a beautiful appearance, relieved as they are by the dark 

 ground of the moist rocks, and the soft murmur of whose notes comes upon the 

 ear with a pleasing though melancholy effect. There, and in other places of 

 a similar nature, have I watched these beautiful birds, until I rendered myself 

 in some measure familiar with their habits; and amid such wild and desolate 

 scenes have I loved to wander and indulge in the not less wild imaginings of 

 a spirit that desired to hold converse with the unseen but ever present Spirit of 

 the universe. 



"At early dawn the pigeons maybe seen issuing from these retreats in straggling 

 parties, which soon take a determinate direction, and meeting with others by the 

 way, proceed in a loose body along the shores until they reach the cultivated parts 

 of the country, where they settle in large flocks, diligently seeking for grains of 

 barley and oats, pods of the charlock, seeds of the wild mustard, polygona, and 

 other plants, together with several species of small shell- snails, especially Helix 

 ericetorum and Bulimus acutus, which abound in the sandy pastures. When they 

 have young, they necessarily make several trips in the course of the day ; but 

 from the end of autumn to the beginning of summer they continue all day in the 

 fields. In winter they collect into flocks, sometimes composed of several hundred 

 individuals ; and, as at this season they are anxious to make the best use of the 

 short period of daylight, they may easily be approached by a person acquainted 



