A HAUNT OF BIRDS. 
179 
resemblance of their colour to that of the ground. Meanwhile, the old 
birds flew, wheeling and screeching, over the heads of the intruders ; 
at intervals settling down upon some hummock or ridge at a little 
distance, whence they could survey the field of action. 
Speaking of the cliffs, Mr. White informs us that every nook and 
ledge, and every projection and vantage-point, have their occupant. 
Here and there lies an egg, and you marvel it does not roll off into the 
sea; but, on examining one, you find that it is conical in shape, with 
straight sides, not bulging like eggs laid in a nest, — and hence their 
tendency to glide down a slope is neutralized. At another place sit 
three or four youngsters in a row, their yellow bills and white downy 
breasts contrasting pleasantly with the dark-coloured rock ; motionless 
these, and silent, while those on the summit jerk their heads up and 
down incessantly, and fill the echoes with their loud chattering and 
screeching. There are gulls and gannets, terns and guillemots, mews 
and kittiwakes, and many another. At times we catch sight of a 
puffin, or coulter-neb, easily recognized by his curious beak, com- 
memorated in the old rhyme, — 
" Tarnmie Norie o' the Bass 
Canna kiss a pretty lass. " 
Their notes, as is the case with all sea-birds, are by no means plaintive 
or musical, but harsh and discordant. If they are the voices of the 
sea, it is of the sea in its angriest and most churlish moods. 
We have already spoken of the cormorant, but we cannot resist the 
temptation to accompany Mr. White on a visit to one of his haunts. 
The surface of North Wawms is rugged in the extreme ; patches of 
peaty soil, ridges and slopes of rock, fissured and split in all directions, 
and frequently intersected by deep gullies. Here the eider-duck breeds, 
differing in her peaceful habit from the noisy tribes that frequent the 
island, and retaining still the gentleness of disposition first bestowed 
upon her, as the monkish chroniclers say, by St. Cuthbert, who loved 
the eider-duck with a special love, and trained her to build near his 
oratory. As for the gulls, the puffins, and the sheldrakes, the air rings 
with their clang and clamour. Mr. White tells us that "it was curious 
