A BIT OF THE BERWICKSHIRE COAST AND ITS BIRDS.

By W. DOUGLAS.

THE fringe of coast-line that runs west from Coldingham Shore to Pease Dean, embracing the promontory of St Abbs, depicts one of the most picturesque, and at the same time rugged and grand scenes, with massive cliffs and rocky stacks alive with bird life, that is to be found on all the great seaboard of Eastern Scotland. Whether viewed from the scenic, the geological, or the ornithological points of view, few places can offer better or even equal attractions.

Starting from the village of Coldingham Shore early one morning in the beginning of last May, Mr Harold Raeburn (whose extensive and accurate knowledge of birds and their habits was to add so much to the interest of the day) and I saw the cliffs at their best. The rising sun shone full on their faces, lightening up their wondrous colours of red, yellow, and white, with startling effect, and the great flights of sea-birds, ever wheeling round in countless numbers, filling the air with their incessant cries, added the life to the scene which completed a perfect picture.

We began our examination of the cliffs at Whiteheugh. This strange promontory widens out as its reaches seawards, and appears to be guarded at its narrow neck by the ruins of an ancient castle, but on coming closer we found them to be weathered fragments of natural rock which had taken this unusual form. In the recesses of this fastness we observed a Jackdaw sitting on its nest, which on being disturbed revealed two eggs. On the ledges of the south face of this promontory nest three large colonies of Guillemots.* Each individual bird standing as usual, erect like a

* Mr Muirhead says of the Guillemot that besides those breeding on Whiteheugh, "a small breeding station of this species is seen on the cliffs immediately to the east of the Lighthouse, and after rounding the Head considerable colonies are found on the Cleaver Rock, Foul Carr, the precipices at the Ramparts, Skelly, and Flot Carr. There is also a nesting place on the face of the steep cliff which looks towards

man in full evening dress, with its white front and swallowtailed coat, had already paired for the season and looked quite secure under its overhanging ledge of rock. Besides these Guillemots, on the whole face of this great cliff, wherever the smallest resting place offered room for a nest, were scattered the ever present Herring Gull, leaving only a small part clear for the minute colony of the graceful Kittiwake,* which had taken its quarters on small rock ledges nearer the sea. It was pleasant to think in looking at the sites which these birds had chosen, that the most of them were absolutely safe from molestation, for nearly all of them, on this cliff at any rate, were in quite inaccessible positions.†

On the other side of Heugh my friend found in a pigeon's nest a young bird with a plentiful supply of feathers already on its back, and it would not be long before it was away on the wing. Evidently its parents had nested early in the year. We saw many pigeons and Jackdaws during the day, and they must breed in great numbers all along the cliffs.

In the absence of a local guide we were sometimes at a

the west between West Hurker and Petticowick Harbour. When we reach Broadhaven Bay a small colony is seen on the rocks there, and another at the Raven's Heugh; further on at Trummie Carr we find another occupying the most westerly breeding place of the Guillemot on the coast of Berwickshire" ("Birds of Berwickshire," vol. ii., p. 298). We verified all these sites with the exception of the last three. There is also another considerable colony on the cliffs to the east of and facing Fowl Carr.

* Mr Muirhead says (1895) that the Kittiwake "does not now nest on any part of the Berwickshire coast" (vol. ii., p. 288). This site was re-discovered prior to 1897 by Mr Oswin Lee. He records in his book, "Among British Birds in their Nesting Haunts," "that he was lowered on a rope to photograph two birds on their nest at St Abb's Head" (vol. i., p. 54). From our own observation there are now four snall colonies, viz., on Whiteheugh, Fowl Carr, the cliff east of Fowl Carr, and the Ramparts.

Mr Muirhead records (ii., p. 282), that the eggs used to be eagerly sought after by the local fishermen, but that now they do not go so frequently on egging expeditions. He also tells how some forty years ago the fishermen of Burnmouth went twice a week in “gull time" to get eggs and usually secured from 80 to 90 in a morning. We could have lifted about 140 had we been so minded.

loss to give the correct names to the various cliffs, headlands, and stacks on our way along the coast, but after our return, with the help of the illustrations in Mr Muirhead's book on the "Birds of Berwickshire," and the 6-inch Ordnance Survey map, we have been able to make up a list of them and to identify them all, and this list is printed at the end of this paper.

In our round of Whiteheugh, where we kept as near the edge of the cliffs as was prudent, we discovered a nest with one egg in it of the one foolish Herring Gull which had built its house within reach of human hands. My friend remarked that one usually finds this in all such stations. It must either have not yet acquired the faculty of knowing when it was safe or had been crowded out of all the better positions.

These cliffs must look well from the sea, and I understand that boats can easily be hired at Coldingham Shore for this purpose. To do this pleasantly, however, one is very much dependent upon the weather, for the surf rolls in heavily whenever the winds do blow.

After leaving Whiteheugh we circled round northwards, and got down to the shore at a pretty little cove called Horsecastle Bay, where on our right was a curious detached land stack called Batty's Stone. My friend climbed up behind this and discovered another pigeon's nest containing two eggs.

From here we made our way across the low ground that divides St Abb's Head from the mainland and ascended to the top of the cliffs. These, at this point, are at their grandest, and plunge down for the most part vertically into the sea.

We swept the ledges of the cliffs below the lighthouse with binocular, and counted numbers of Guillemots and Herring Gulls on their nests, or, in the case of the Guillemot, on what stands with them in place of a nest. Then we worked our way round the seaward side of the lighthouse enclosures, looking down on the Cleaver Rock which stands up boldly below and carries many nests of the Herring Gull. Just before reaching the site of St Abb's Nunnery we managed again to reach the shore, climbing down a steep