More fleet, on nimble-wing, the gull
Sweeps booming by, intent to cull
Voracious, from the billow’s breast,
Marked far away, his destined feast;
Behold him now deep plunging dip
His sunny pinions sable tip
In the green wave; now lightly skim
With whirling flight the water’s brim,
Wave in the blue sky his silver sail
Aloft, and frolic in the gale,
Or sink again his breast to lave,
And float upon the foaming wave;
Oft o’er his form your eyes may roam,
Not know him from the feathery foam,
Nor ’mid the rolling waves, your ear
On yelling blast, his clamour hear.
Though but a small number amongst the many who direct their steps to
South Stack may have turned their attention to ornithology, yet none
visit this romantic spot without expressing their unqualified admiration
in reference to the thousands of sea-birds which perform their rapid
circumlocutions in every direction, filling the air with their shrill
screaming voices. Presuming, therefore, that a few remarks on the
natural history of these aquatic tribes may not be deemed uninteresting,
we give the following information concerning some of them.
We would, however, first observe, that we cannot complain of want of
music on the sea-shore, for wind and wave make there a constant melody;
but we rarely listen, when near the sea, to the voice of a singing-bird;
such birds are uttering their joy far away over the corn fields, or among
the leafy boughs of the deep green woodland, or in the stillness of the
meadow, or among the water sedges. But if the voices of our sea-birds
are not in themselves musical, they please us by their association with
the rude and wild scenes around us, and by their fitness for their
haunts. Of little use to the sea-bird would be the sweet clear tones of
the nightingale or the lark. Loud as they seem to us when uttered amid
the stillness of the country, they would hardly be heard over the sea,
and would be of small service as a language to the winged creatures whose
homes are rocky precipices, ever dashed against by loud-sounding waves.
To these the screaming hoarse voices of the sea-gulls are far better
attuned, and these are indeed the only utterances which could avail them
amidst the storm.
Nor is this powerful voice of the sea-bird the only fitness for its
haunts which is presented to our minds as we look and listen. Besides
that it possesses, in common with all birds, that wonderful power of
vision, without which it could neither direct its flight with safety, nor
gain any idea of distance or motion, it has immense strength of wing; and
such species as the sea-gulls, which are destined to live on water rather
than land, have small legs and feet; while such as are made like the
curlew, to roam the marshes, have long legs, adapted for walking and
wading in among them.