Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-12-01
wAeaE RAVENS NEST.
f1oss Grown Crsgs on the isle of wish
Nhere The Hirda Live.

szoss Grown crsgs on the Isle of Wight
Where the Birds Live.
The lofty precipices of Culver
cliffs, in thesoutheast corner of the
Isle OF Wight, are still the breeding
places Oh ravens and peregrine fall
con.
As long ego as the days of Queen
Elizabeth the falcons from Culver
cliffs were famous, and are said to
have nested in the same eyries till
TIE present day. The fishermen off
tiis foreland had just loaded up
their boats with the lobster and
prawn pots, five dozen in boat, to
shoot at the turn of the tide, and it
was not without difficulty that a
black eyed, brown legged fisher lad
was obtained to aid in managing the
boat among the currents and rocks
which the falling tide would soon
disclose. Like most ''longshore" fish
ernlen. who look on the sea fowl and
rabbits in the cliffs as part of their
yearly harvest equally with the pro
dJce of the sea, he was well ac
quainted with the habits of the birds
and soon confirmed the existence of
the ravens. A coast guard man had
cGTgat a young one newly hOwii
from tho nest a few weeks before
which ate so much that he had re-
solved to sell it cheap when he re-
turned from his cruise with the mo-
bilized fleet.
AS we rowed quickly across the
bay which separates the lowland
from the long line of Culver cliffs
the first face of the precipice opened
out-a square topped buttress of
chalk, incurved and overhanging,
with waving lines of fints running
from top to bottom. For fifty feet
above the water the cliff was covered
with pale, sulphur colored inchen,
and the surface was so smooth and
hard as to afford no foothold even to
the birds, except to the sand martens,
which, abandoning the burrowing
habits of their race, had made them
selves nests of chalk pellets like
those built by house martens beneath
the caves. The beams of the setting
sun streamed over the top of the
precipice, and against the light the
tiny martens were visible, like gnats
against the evening sky. The scared
face of the cliff was hardly more
favorable to the birds
A few gulls were sitting on knife
like edge of chalk which juts into
the sea at it's extremity, and the first
cormorant launched itself heavily
into the air and flew out to sea. But
as we approached the third and least
accessible angle of the cliff the cries
and calls OF the birds could be heard,
and cormorants and gulls came flying
round the crag to see who were the
disturbers of their evening quiet.
At the extreme angle of the rock
the sea has bored two deep black
holes in the chalk, and in one of these
the body of the last Of the Culver
was found some years ago,
where the sea had washed it. AT
this point the cliff is perhaps more
than at any other, rising
sheer, white and lofty, untenanted
by birds and unmarked even by the
creeping samphire.
Beyond the ''nostrils, " as the black
holes are called, the surface of the
chalk alters and is marked with long.
horizontal lines and ledges of grass
and samphire, and crowded with the
old and young sea fowl, which have
made it their home for centuries
The long, black, snaky heads and
necks of the cormorants lined the
highest shelves, and sea gulls sat
quietly in groups and lines like white
doves against the short, green turf.
Lower down the beds of samphire
hung in gentle curves one below the
other, like the "festooned blinds"
now so common, and among the
sat the white and shining
sea fowl. London Spectator.