MULTITUDE OF BIRDS. 
37 
the other, like people holding an animated conversation. 
They have white cheeks, with a hlack hood, which seems 
fastened under the chin with a band of the same colour. 
A few of the delicately white kittiwakes* were perched 
here and there on a projecting crag ; and, scattered at re- 
gular intervals, like stern, upright, solitary sentinels, stood 
the corvorants, spotting with black the whole surface of the 
cliff. There seemed little disposition on the part of any 
one species to consort with another : though crowded toge- 
ther on the cliif, yet each species kept in degree separate : 
willock crowded willock ; puffin, puffin. A noise, as one 
might suppose like that of disembodied spirits in purga- 
tory, issued from every part of the rock ; whether it pro- 
ceeded fr'om the razor-bills, willocks or gulls, we could not 
make out; but, of all the horrid and piteous groanings I 
have ever heard, these were the most so. Perhaps it was 
only a morning hymn of thankfulness and happiness ; per- 
haps the soft note of love ; perhaps the united cry of thou- 
sands of the young for food. Being sufficiently near to 
see very clearly the whole mass of living creatures before 
us, the fishermen suggested that a single barrel should be 
fired at random, at the same time they both gave a tre- 
mendous shout. Words cannot describe the scene that 
followed : corvorants, ravens, gulls, kittiwakes, puffins, 
razor-bills, guillemots, all left their stations ; the very sur- 
face of the cliff came towards us. The remaining barrels 
were soon emptied, and all was one wild uproar : the sky 
was positively darkened ; the air filled with heterogeneous 
sounds : the screams, the calls, the groans of the birds ; ~ 
* Mr. Yarrell informs us (Brit. Birds, iii. 446) that this bird breeds in these 
cliffs every year, in great numbers, but I am inclined to think this is not the 
case; the bird to which he alludes is probably the herring-gull. — E. N. 
