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builds and rears its young in safety. The giiirle-books do not give the height of 

 the rock, but I should say it would be about 400ft., more or less.* I know the 

 Cormorants looked very small from where we stood. A road skirts the bottom, 

 and the nests, witli the young, for the most part about three-parts grown, were 

 easily distinguishable from the quantity of white droppings that fall beneath the 

 nests and stain the surface of the rock. 



We watched the old birds, particularly the hens, feeding their young, and 

 the flight of the parent birds as they circled and soared round the face of the rock ; 

 and particularly the powerful flight of the large dark cock birds was grand in the 

 extreme. The young, during the time they were being fed, made a continual 

 querulous crying. Every now and then a Sparrowhawk would sweep round the 

 face of the rock ; instantly the old cock Cormorants would trumpet out their 

 hoarse note of alarm and defiance, to be answered, in their turn, by the cries of 

 the hens and young, making a babel of noise that must be heard to be understood. 

 These sounds would ultimately die away, and perfect silence would reign until 

 the appearance of another hawk would start afresh the trumpeting, and set the 

 echo in reply. It was impossible for me to count the nests from where I was on 

 the road, but at a rough guess I should say there were about thirty there then, 

 but whether any young had flown I am unable to say. 



The fishermen say that there are Cormorants on the rock Islind from age, 

 and that they never leave the rock, but are fed by the younger birds ; but I am 

 assured by a naturalist, living at Aberystwith, who knows the rock well, that he 

 has many times seen it without a single Cormorant on it. They also say that the 

 younger birds conduct the blind old birds to the sea, which I think is more likely 

 to be true. 



At the foot of the rock were two dead birds that seemed to have been shot 

 when away, and to have flown home to die. There were also several small rabbits 

 feeding directly under the rock of which the Cormorants seemed to take no notice. 

 The nests, as far as I could see, never seemed to contain more than three birds, 

 and these must be able to fly well before they could get from the rock to reach the 

 sea, about four miles. 



I watched the busy scene for more than an hour, and left about half -past 

 six, when fresh arrivals kept coming in from the sea in little strings of four, five, 

 and six. Instead of returning to Abergwynolwyn we drove about two miles and a 

 half down the valley towards Towyn, where we dismissed our driver, and walked 

 the remaining distance into Towyn, which is a route I should advise any orni- 

 thologist visiting the rock to take. Charmed beyond measure at a sight which to 

 me was so novel, I have here attempted to describe it. — The Zoologist, October, 1888. 



* A friend of mine has since, by means of an aneroid barometer, determined the highest point 

 to be 650 feet, and the precipitous sides about 550 feet.— E.C.P., 1892. 



