KITTIWAKE GULL. 
87 
“ ‘ They hide the sun when they fly, they cover the skerries 
w'hen they sit, they drown the thunder of the surf when thej 
cry, they colour the rocks white where they breed.’ I believed 
the excellent Faber after I had seen the Eider-holms and Auk- 
bergs, and jet I doubted, as every naturalist must, and there- 
fore I ardently desired to visit Swdrtholm for myself. An 
amiable Norseman with whom 1 bec.ame friendly, the pilot of 
the mail steamer by which I travelled, readily agreed to row me 
over to the breeding-place, and we approached the promontory 
late one evening. At a distance of six or eight nautical miles 
we were overtaken by flocks of from thirty to a hundred, some- 
times even two hundred, Kittiwakes flying to their nesting-place. 
The nearer we approached to Swdrtholm the more rapid was 
the succession of these swarms, and the larger did they become. 
At last the promontory became visible, a rocky wall about 
eight hundred yards long, pierced by innumerable holes, rising 
almost perpendicularly from the sea to a height of from four 
hundred and fifty to six hundred feet. It looked gtey in the 
distance, but with a telescope one could discern innumerable 
points and lines. It looked as though a gigantk slate had 
been scratched all over with all sorts of marks by a playful 
giant child, as though the whole rock bore a wondrous decora- 
tion of chains, rings, and stars. Frorn the dark depths of lar ge 
and small cavities there gleamed a brilliant white ; the shelvriig 
ledges stood out in more conspicuous brightness. The brood- 
ing Gulls on their nests formed the white pattern, and we 
realised the truth of Faber’s words, ‘ they cover the rocks when 
they sit.’ 
“ Our boat, as it grated on the rocky shore, startled a number 
of the Gulls, and I saw a jricture such as I had seen on many 
eider-holms and gull-islands. A shot from my friend’s gun 
thundered against the precipice. As a raging winter storm 
rushes through the air and breaks up the snow-laden clouds till 
they fall in flakes, so now it snowed living birds. One saw 
neither hill nor sky, nothing but an indesciibable confusion. A 
thick cloud d.arkened the whole horizon, justifying the descrip- 
tion, ‘ they hide the sun when they fly.’ The north wind blew 
violently and the icy sea surged wildly ag.iinst the foot of the 
cliffs, but more wildly still resounded the shrill cries o t e 
birds, so that the truth of the last part also of Faber’s descrip- 
