Xxiv. The Birds of Pembrokeshire. 
sea birds on the cliffs. Ramsey is about two miles long from north to 
south, by a mile wide, and there is a solitary farmhouse upon it. Its 
bright contrasted colours in the summer time make it a scene of 
great beauty, and these colours are due to the sea-weeds that girt the 
bases of the cliffs, to the varied tints of the rocks, and, not the least, 
to the ferns and flowers with which the cliffs are decked from their 
summits to the water’s edge. Nor must we omit to mention the 
flecks of white which are dotted about everywhere by the pure- 
plumaged birds. On the summits, and on the shelves of the cliffs, 
the sea-thrift (Statice) will have its cushions of pink flowers, to be 
replaced, later on, by the more brilliant tints of the heather blooms. 
Growing in tangles among the ferns and heath are the briars of 
a very sweet-scented pure white rose’ (Rosa spinosissima), whose 
flowers vie in purity with those of the sea campions (Sv/ene maritima), 
and give an appearance in many places as if the cliffs were sprinkled 
with snow. Great patches of fern (Asplentum marinum, and more 
rarely Asplentum lanceolatum) crop out from sheltered niches, and 
form, in many cases, the beautiful roofs of numerous caves, which are 
the home of the seal and its companions. Rows of freckled bells of 
the foxglove (Digitalis purpureus), whose spikes are particularly long 
and handsome, now purple, now white, here and there gracefully 
wave their drooping heads, while the Cambrian rocks are profusely 
splashed with the bright orange lichens that are so familiar in Mr. 
Brett’s charming landscapes of the Cornish coast. The cliffs them- 
selves are many coloured, here coal black, here dark grey, and where 
the waves lap their bases are rimmed with coral-red sea-weeds. The 
intense blue of the sky overhead, and the glinting green sea-water 
beneath, are an appropriate colour-setting to the brilliant picture. At 
the south-west end of the island the cliffs are more varied in form, 
and are more deeply honey-combed by the waves than they are at 
the north, and some fantastic rocky islets are close in shore. Two 
of these are known as Yuys-y-Cantwr and Ynys-bery, and are 
separated by a narrow gorge, called Zzw//-y-dillyn, just wide enough 
for a boat under oars to pass, through which the tide races with 
1 Also very common, as Dr. Propert informs us, on the Burrows, and in some 
of the valleys of the adjoining mainland. 
