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CHAPTER I. 



MARINE BIRDS — PORPESSE. 



Whether the sea is approached by land or by- 

 water, the first indications of its existence are 

 generally to be found in the air. On some days, 

 the electric clouds that skirt the cliffs map out, 

 as it were, the sea-coast; and when such signs 

 fail, the marine birds give evident tokens that 

 the sea, their great store -house, is close at hand. 

 With the birds, then, we will commence our 

 observations of the sea and its shores. 



The bird that usually presents itself as the 

 ocean's herald is the Common Gull {Larus 

 canus). There are some twelve or thirteen 

 species of British Gulls, including the Kittiwake 



B 



