In the dancing water, just beyond the line where the surf roared and foamed over the rocks, eiders in hundreds were swimming. Two pairs kept close company, but their relations were hardly amicable. One drake constantly bullied the other, who was too timid or lethargic to retaliate; not so his spouse, however, for she boldly attacked and pecked the aggressor. Further away a pair of red-breasted mergansers preened their beautiful plumage as they bobbed up and down on the waves, and above them great cigar-shaped gannets floated and swooped, now and then dashing headlong into the water with a mighty splash. Within sight, though several miles away, lie the Farnes, where countless terns, guillemots, eiders, and other birds will shortly be nesting, and already the Sandwich terns are appearing on the coast. Two of these, the first of the “sea swallows” to come north in spring, beat to and fro on long, pointed wings in the bay.
Summer birds are still slow in returning. Reports of a few more swallows have reached me, and the yellow wagtail and an early house martin have been noted. The cuckoo, wryneck, and doubtless other species, have beet seen in the south, and within the next few days we should have many welcome visitors coming to their homes.
