By the time that darkness came at last they had all had a good meal, and were bedded down in the two tents, comfortable on ground-sheets and rugs. The fresh air had made them so sleepy that the girls fell asleep without even saying good night.
“They’re a’ daft,” said the fisherman to his wife. “Wasting a fine boat like that yon, looking for bairds. Bairds! When there’s good fish to be got! Well, they’ll soon see bairds in plenty. Och, they’re a’ dafties!”
Chapter 8
THE ISLANDS OF BIRDS
NEXT day, after a fine breakfast of porridge and cream, and grilled herrings, the tents were struck and the five went aboard their boat. It was called Lucky Star, which the children thought was a very nice name.
Kiki had not been popular with the old fisherman and his wife. They had never seen a parrot before, and they could not understand a bird that talked. They regarded Kiki with awe and fear, and seemed scared of her sharp, curved beak.
“God save the King,” said Kiki, having learnt by experience that most people thought this was a fine thing for her to say. But she spoilt it by adding “Pop goes the King, pop, pop, pop!”
Now she was aboard with the others, and once again the boat was skimming over the blue water. Once again the sky was blue and the sun was hot. True May weather, that made the sea a clear, translucent blue, and set thousands of little sparkles dancing over the water.
“I’ve still got that lovely feeling,” said Lucy-Ann happily, as she dangled her hand over the side of the boat and felt the cool, silky water catch hold of her fingers and trail them back. “Now to find some bird-islands. We really are going to find some today, aren’t we, Bill?”
“We certainly are,” said Bill, and gave the boat a little extra speed. Spray came up and fell lightly over everyone.
“Ooooh, lovely!” said Dinah. “I was so hot. That cooled me beautifully. Let her out again, Bill! I could do with some more of that.”
For five hours they sped over the water, and then Jack gave a shout. “The islands! Look, you can see little blobs here and there on the horizon! — They must be the islands!”
And now the children began to see a great many different birds on the water and in the air. Jack called out their names excitedly. “There’s a shearwater! Jolly good name for it. And look, Philip, that’s a razorbill! — and gosh, is that a Little Auk?”
The boys, well versed in the appearance of the wild sea-birds, almost fell overboard in their excitement. Many of the birds seemed to have no fear of the noisy boat at all, but went bobbing on their way, hardly bothering to swerve when it neared them.
“There’s a shag diving,” shouted Jack. “Look! you can see it swimming under water — it’s caught a fish. Here it comes. It’s clumsy getting out of the water to fly. Gosh, if only I’d got my camera ready!”
Kiki watched the many birds out of baleful eyes. She did not like the interest that Jack suddenly appeared to take in these other birds. When a great gull appeared, flying leisurely right over the boat, Kiki shot up underneath it, gave a fearful screech, and turned a somersault in the air. The gull, startled, rose vertically on its strong wings and let out an alarmed cry.
“EEE-oo-ee-ooooo!”
Kiki imitated it perfectly, and the gull, thinking that Kiki must be some strange kind of relation, circled round. Then it made a pounce at the parrot. But Kiki flipped round, and then dropped to Jack’s shoulder.
“Eee-oo!” she called defiantly, and the gull, after a doubtful glance, went on its way, wondering, no doubt, what kind of a gull this was that behaved in such a peculiar manner.
“You’re an idiot, Kiki,” said Jack. “One of these days a gull will eat you for his dinner.”
“Poor old Kiki,” said the parrot, and gave a realistic groan. Bill laughed. “I can’t imagine what Kiki will do when we see the puffins,” he said, “waddling about among the heather and sea-pinks. I’m afraid she will give them an awful time.”
As they came nearer to the first island, more and more birds were to be seen on and above the water. They glided gracefully on the wind, they dived down for fish, they bobbed along like toy ducks. There was a chorus of different cries, some shrill, some guttural, some mournful and forlorn. They gave the children a wild, exultant kind of feeling.
As they came near to the island the children fell silent. A tall cliff towered in front of them, and it was covered from top to bottom with birds! The children stared in delight.
Birds, birds, birds! On every ledge they stood or squatted, thousands of white gannets, myriads of the browner guillemots, and a mixture of other sea-birds that the boys could hardly make out, though they glued their field-glasses to their eyes for minutes on end.
“What a coming and going!” said Bill, staring with fascinated eyes, too. And it certainly was. Besides the birds that stood on the ledges, there were always others arriving and others leaving. That way and this went the busy birds, with a chorus of excited cries.
“They’re not very careful with their eggs,” said Lucy-Ann, in distress, when she looked through Jack’s glasses in her turn, and saw eggs falling from the ledges, as careless birds took off and knocked their precious eggs over the ledge and down the cliff, to be smashed on the rocks below.
“They can lay plenty more,” said Philip. “Come on, Dinah — give me back my glasses! Golly, what a wonderful sight! I shall write this all up in my notes tonight.”
The motor-boat nosed carefully round the rocky cliffs. Bill stopped looking at the birds and kept a sharp lookout instead for rocks. Once round the steep cliffs the land sloped downwards, and Bill spotted a place that seemed suitable for the boat.
It was a little sheltered sandy cove. He ran the boat in and it grounded softly. He sprang out with the boys, and made it safe, by running the anchor well up the beach and digging it in.
“Is this going to be our headquarters?” asked Dinah, looking round.
“Oh no,” said Jack at once. “We want to cruise round a bit, don’t we, Bill, and find a puffin island. I’d really like to be in the midst of the bird-islands, and be able to go from one to the other as we pleased. But we could stay here for tonight, couldn’t we?”
That was a wonderful day for the four children, and for Bill too. With thousands of birds screaming round their heads, but apparently not in the least afraid of them, the children made their way to the steep cliffs they had seen from the other side of the island.
Birds were nesting on the ground, and it was difficult to tread sometimes, without disturbing sitting birds or squashing eggs. Some of the birds made vicious jabs at the children’s legs, but nobody was touched. It was just a threatening gesture, nothing more.
Kiki was rather silent. She sat on Jack’s shoulder, her head hunched into her neck. So many birds at once seemed rather to overwhelm her. But Jack knew that she would soon recover, and startle the surrounding birds by telling them to wipe their feet and shut the door.
They reached the top of the cliffs, and were almost deafened by the cries and calls around them. Birds rose and fell in the air, glided and soared, weaving endless patterns in the blue sky.
“It’s funny they never bump into one another,” said Lucy-Ann, astonished. “There’s never a single collision. I’ve been watching.”
“Probably got a traffic policeman,” said Philip solemnly. “For all you know some of them have licences under their wings.”
“Don’t be silly,” said Lucy-Ann. “All the same, it is clever of them not to collide, when there’s so many thousands. What a row! I can hardly hear myself speak.”
They came to the very edge of the cliff. Bill took Lucy-Ann’s arm. “Not too near,” he said. “The cliffs are almost sheer here.”
They were. When the children lay down on their tummies and looked cautiously over, it gave them a queer feeling to see the sea so very very far below, moving slowly in and out, with only a far-off rumble to mark the breaking of the waves. Lucy-Ann found herself clutching the cushions of sea-pink beside her.
“I somehow feel I’m not safe on the ground,” she said with a laugh. “I feel as if I’ve got to hold on. I feel sort of — well, sort of upside-down!”
Bill held on to her tightly after that speech. He knew that she felt giddy, and he wasn’t going to risk anything with little Lucy-Ann! He liked all the children very much, but Lucy-Ann was his favourite.