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This is at Trevelloe, the ancient estate of the Praeds, who now call themselves Tyringham. Here the daws congregate each evening in such numbers that a stranger to the district and to the local habits of the bird might imagine that all the cliff-breeding jackdaws in West Cornwall had come to roost at that spot.
The struggle for reproduction is nowhere more severe than amongst the cliff-breeding sea birds; it is not for nothing that one sees Kittiwake Gulls, locked together, fall into the water hundreds of feet below and struggle to the point of exhaustion, or, as has been reported, to the point of death; it is not for nothing that Puffins fight with such desperation.
The cliff-breeding species Guillemots, Razorbills, and Puffins are difficult to investigate because individuals vary so little, and the sexes resemble one another so closely; yet, despite these difficulties, we can gain some idea of the general purport of their activities.
The peculiar circumstances under which these cliff-breeding forms dwell does, however, enable us to picture, on the one hand, the precarious situation of an individual that was incapable of winning or holding a position at the accustomed breeding station, and, on the other, the plight of the species as a whole if each one exercised authority over too large an area.
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