part of the rock in the midst of the
placid gulls. With the shrill screams of a thousand imps they darted
into the air.

"Blaze away, your Honours," shouted the cockswain, and mounting to the
top of the rock, endeavoured with an oar, which he handled like a flail,
to knock down every gull that came within reach. We all three fired at
the same instant, and some dozen gulls made a summerset in the air, and
with flapping wings and dangling legs, fell into the water. Those that
were not killed outright, screeched piteously as they floated on the
water. Their unscathed companions, with all the affection and courage of
the brute creation, hovered over their fallen kinsfolk, and descending
close to them, strove to bear them away with their beaks. Each time we
fired, the shock appeared to drive the gulls at a distance from us, as a
discharge of heavy artillery might cause a regiment of soldiers to
swerve backwards; but, as soon as the powder cleared away, these
pugnacious birds returned to the vicinity of the rock, screaming loudly;
and some of them were audacious enough to pounce upon our caps, and
wreak their vengeance by giving us one or two hearty pecks. The
cockswain, working like a telegraph with his swinging oar, generally
contrived to pick off these skirmishers.

"Load, your Honours, load," exclaimed the sporting cockswain;--"here
they come again."

And a whole shoal of gulls, like a troop of Arab cavalry, came, flying
with the speed of a whirlwind, to the attack. As soon as they were
within gun-shot, R---- and P---- gave the van the contents of two
tolerably good charges of large duck-shot, and I sent a couple of
bullets, making the third brace, right into a small division of the
approaching multitude. The surface of the water now appeared like a
field of turnips that had forced their bulky white bodies above the
earth, so thickly was it strewn with disabled and defunct gulls.

"Had those gulls not better be picked up?" said R----, while loading his
gun, to the cockswain.

"No, my Lord; let them be," replied the cockswain with as much
excitement in his face and manner, as if we had been bombarding a
strong citadel. "As long as there's one on the water, the others will
always come back; it's their love for one and t'other, my Lord."

A bevy of wild ducks now scoured the sky to windward, and quacking all
together, whirled round about in the air, and describing each circle
smaller and lower than the preceding one,