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 its billows against the rugged shores. At the summit is an aggregation of angular fragments, the termination of an elevated ridge, and midway down is a green slope, horizontally traversed by several paths formed by the sheep, which at all seasons, but especially in spring, are fond of rambling among the crags, in search of fresh pasturage. The declivity terminates on the sinuous and angular edge of precipices several hundred feet in height, near the upper part of which a pair of White-tailed Eagles have fixed their abode, while the crevices are here and there peopled by starlings. The shelves of those rocks are totally inaccessible by ordinary means, although an adventurous shepherd or farmer sometimes descends on a rope held by half a-dozen people above, to destroy an eagle's nest, or rescue a sheep which has leaped upon some grassy spot, and is unable to reascend; but on one side, by a steep and slippery descent in a fissure, one may penetrate to the base, where he discovers a hole in the rock barely large enough to admit him on his hands and knees. This hole is the entrance of a narrow passage in a crevice roofed with fallen blocks. On one hand is a recess, in which a person might recline at full length, and which was actually employed as a bed by Mr. Macleod, of Berneray, after the battle of Culloden; and se few yards farther, the crevice opens into an irregular cave communicating seaward with the open air, and formed by a rent in the rock, filled above with large blocks that seem ready to fall. The heavy surges of the Atlantic continually dash against a heap of stones, which partially block up the mouth of the cave. On this heap the Crested Cormorants nightly repose, and in summer rear their young. The little shelves and angular recesses of the roof and upper parts of the cavern are tenanted by pigeons, the light blue of whose plumage has a beautiful appearance, relieved as they are by the dark ground of the moist rocks, and the soft murmur of whose notes comes upon the car with a pleasing though melancholy effect. There, and in other places of a similar nature, have I watched these beautiful birds, until I rendered myself in some mensure familiar with their habits; and amid such wild and desolate scenes have I loved to wander and indulge in the not less wild imaginings of a spirit that desired to hold converse with the unseen but ever present Spirit of the universe.

"At early dawn the pigeons may be seen issuing from these retreats in straggling parties, which soon take a determinate direction, and meeting with others by the way, proceed in a loose body along the shores until they reach the cultivated parts of the country, where they settle in large flocks, diligently seeking for grains of barley and oats, pods of the charlock, seeds of the wild mustard, polygone, and other plants, together with several species of small shell-snails, especially Helix ericetorum and Bulimus acutus, which abound in the sandy pastures. When they have young, they necessarily make several trips in the course of the day; but from the end of autumn to the beginning of summer they continue all day in the fields. In winter they collect into flocks, sometimes composed of several hundred individuals; and, as at this season they are anxious to make the best use of the short period of daylight, they may easily be approrched by a person acquainted