164 
THE CORMORANT. 
tained them. These nests were composed of thick 
sticks, plants fvjom the rocks, grass, ketlocks which 
had gone to seed, and a little wool. There were 
four young birds in one, three eggs in another, two 
in a third, and one newly laid in a fourth. The 
shell of the cormorant's eggs is incrusted with a 
white chalky substance, which is easily scraped off 
tvith your penknife, and then you get at the true 
colour of the shell ; the outside of which is of a 
whitish green, and the inside of a green extremely 
delicate and beautiful. The egg is oblong in shape, 
and you find it small for the size of the bird. The 
four young cormorants were unfledged, and covered 
with a black down. Their long necks, and long 
w^ing-bones, gave them a grotesque, and an almost 
hideous appearance. They would have been of 
service to the renowned Callot, when he was making 
his celebrated sketch of the Temptations of St. 
Anthony. There came from the nests a fetid smell, 
so intolerable, that you might have fancied -you had 
got among Virgil's Harpies ; or that you were in- 
haling exhalations from the den of Cacus. Nothing 
could have been more distressing to your nasal sen- 
sibilities. 
It is remarkable that on the RainclifF not a kitti- 
wake is seen to alight ; and scarcely ever observed 
to fly close past it. I saw no signs that this bird 
had ever made its nest here. An attentive natu- 
ralist, who would take up his quarters in this neigh- 
bourhood, and visit the coast every day during the 
breeding season, might possibly be able to discover 
the cause why the kittiwake, which is seen in such 
