120 
The Birds of Pembrokeshire. 
completely to cover them, being often called “the Eligoog 
Stacks.” What we have written above with respect to the 
Razorbill, applies almost in so many words to the present 
species. It is to be found upon all the islands, on some of 
them, as upon Ramsey, in extraordinary numbers, and upon 
some of the cliffs of the mainland. Three parts of the year the 
Guillemots, as well as the other cliff birds, are dispersed upon 
the open sea. They only resort to the islands and cliffs for the 
summer months for the purpose of rearing their young. We 
have visited the Stack Rocks in the early spring before the birds 
had arrived upon them, only to find a few Herring Gulls and 
Kittiwakes perched on their ledges, a Shag or two on the rocks 
just above the sea level, and a pair of otters disporting them- 
selves among the waves that lapped their base. A few weeks 
later, and there would have been a transformation scene! The 
Stacks would have been white with birds, the waters in their 
neighbourhood would have been dotted over by little parties 
diving and fishing, and there would have been an almost deafen- 
ing noise proceeding from the multitude of birds. The Stacks 
are two in number, distant some sixty or seventy yards only 
from the shore, and reach in height almost to the level of the 
cliff on whose top the spectator stands. The largest of them 
is said to be only about thirty yards across on the summit, and 
they both present the appearance of rocky towers rising out of 
the water. The birds cover them from top to bottom, and are 
huddled together on their tops as close together as they can 
pack, but as the spaces after all are small, the total number of 
birds cannot be large, and there is not on these Stacks and on 
the cliffs in their neighbourhood, any more than a mere fraction 
of the immense numbers to be found on Ramsey or Skomer, 
where the birds are distributed over a great length of cliffs. 
But even on these two islands the birds are not found every- 
where, having their favourite cliffs, which are densely thronged 
with them, while others are quite destitute of birds. Mr. Dix 
rowed round the Stack Rocks one day, to discover that the 
Guillemots were more numerous on their ledges fronting the sea 
