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ALCIDiE. 
tance of perhaps fifty feet ; — nearly all these cormorants are seated 
on their nests, about forty in number. These are very large, and 
composed of the roots or “ runners” of the sea lyme-grass, Elymus 
arenarius , which is abundant on the neighbouring sands. They 
are lined with the leaves of the same plant, and placed close to- 
gether, but without touching each other. All the old cormorants 
are wholly black, no white patch behind the thigh or elsewhere, 
and no appearance of a crest.* The usual number of young 
birds is three, which are yet very small. They are all black, and 
exhibit already a ludicrously capacious gape. In some nests 
there are eggs without spots or markings of any kind ; in colour 
and form like those of the common duck.t Temple Brig and 
the slope above it are entirely covered with fine soft cushions of 
the thrift, or sea-pink ( Statice armeria ), now exhibiting in pro- 
fusion, from each verdant mass, its fine rose-coloured flowers. 
The ox-eye, or white chrysanthemum ( Chrysanthemum leucanthe- 
mum), grows abundantly, and is in full bloom on the little 
patches of earth that rest on the face of the cliffs eastward of the 
Temple. Looking in this direction, kittiwakes {Larus rissa) in 
thousands are seen at one view upon their nests, which are placed 
in single rows on all the narrow horizontal shelves of the mural 
cliffs that afford sufficient depth, from the sea upwards, half- way to 
the summit; every available spot is thus occupied. The nest 
is very large, round in form — circular within — and fully three 
inches in thickness. It is apparently composed of the Elymus 
arenarius. The birds are as close together on their nests as 
they can sit, and the lines of snowy whiteness — of various length 
• — which they present against the grey sterile surface of the cliffs 
have a very singular appearance, as strata of flints in a limestone 
quarry are not more horizontally disposed. When the birds stand 
up, and only then, for not one is absent from its nest (now mid- 
day), the young can be seen, which are brownish-grey in colour, 
* In the plumage of Bewick’s “ Corvorant,” as opposed to his “ Crested Corvo- 
rant,” which is the same species in spring plumage. 
t Not less than a hundred cormorants were observed here, arranged in single file 
on the rocks, on the 1st of August, 1850. — (Mr. It. Taylor.) 
