THE PUFFIN. 
229 
Among the land-birds frequenting and building in the cliffs 
that rise direct from ocean, are the innocent and handsome house- 
martin, which, from its diminutive size compared with that of the 
other feathered inhabitants of the place, almost appears, while 
silently floating on the air about the summit of the stupendous 
precipices, as some graceful form of the insect world. The chat- 
tering jackdaw and the chough, with the kestrel, peregrine falcon, 
and sea-eagle, are to be seen here. Of the last-named noble 
species, five old birds — all now on the Horn — came under my 
notice to-day, and for a long time I had an excellent and near 
view of three of them, both on the ground and on wing. The 
common buzzard, the raven, and the grey crow ( C . cornix), seen 
by us on the Horn, doubtless all build amid the marine cliffs ; — 
of the last-named we saw a dense flock of about forty on the 27th 
of June. The starling nidifies on some of the lower rocks of the 
Horn, and the rock-dove in great numbers within the ocean- 
washed caverns. 
Oyster-catchers are said to breed in some places on the rocky 
flattened summits of lofty cliffs, perhaps 350 feet in height, on 
which numbers of them appeared. 
On referring to the descriptions of similar haunts of rock- 
birds on the coasts of England and Scotland, visited by Mr. 
Waterton and Mr. St. John, we learn, as follows. In the vicinity of 
Elamborough Head, the former author (himself characteristically 
lowered down the cliffs) met with razorbills, guillemots, puffins, 
kittiwakes, cormorants, and shags; and the land-birds breeding 
there were peregrine falcons, ravens, jackdaws, starlings, and rock- 
doves.^ 
At the island of Handa, off the western coast of Sutherland, 
Mr. St. John noticed all the preceding species, with the exception 
round the base of the rocks. The ldttiwake breeds so low down, that, after a great 
storm, the gamekeeper has seen as many of these birds washed ashore dead as would 
fill several carts ; — from what I myself saw of their breeding-places, and the vast 
number of birds, this would doubtless occur. 
* ‘ Notes on the Haunts of the Guillemot, &c.,’ in ‘ Essays Nat. Hist.’ vol. i. 
