42 
CORVORANTS. 
presents all the colours imaginable. The poor people in 
the neighbourhood get sands from it of a dozen different 
colours; and, running them into a phial, make each colour 
form a distinct ring, which has a very pretty effect : these 
phials, so filled, they sell for a shilling each. 
We ascended the cliff, examined the lighthouse, pur- 
chased a variety of eggs, and crossed the hill to the corvo- 
rant colony : then, by lying down on our bellies on the turf, 
we quietly peeped over the edge of the cliff, and obtained 
an excellent view of the amiable company, from which a 
stench arose almost enough to suffocate us. There were 
young ones of all sizes, — some almost ready to fly, some 
only covered with down ; some nests had one or two eggs, 
which are very small in proportion to the size of the bird, 
and of a dirty white colour : many hens were sitting, and 
here and there a solitary old cock (the crested corvorant 
of Bewick) was perched on his triple support of tail and 
feet, contemplating the expanse of ocean as motionless as 
a statue. One of the party now determined on the ha- 
zardous experiment of leaning over the cliff and shooting 
them as they sat ; the other two remonstrated, but to no 
purpose : so a line was formed ; the first held tight the 
coat-tails of the shooter, the others locked hand in hand ; 
thus making a dead weight of four against one, in case of 
any propensity on the part of the first to lose his balance. 
Thus arranged, the adventurer shouldered his double-bar- 
relled, and, actually bending over the cliff, he pulled the 
trigger. An old corvorant fell five hundred feet down the 
cliff, upon the little narrow beach before mentioned ; ano- 
ther trigger was pulled, and down went another corvorant. 
The shooter then exchanged guns with him who held him 
by the coat-tails, and with each barrel of this he also sent 
