224 BIRD LIFE IN WILD WALES 



the markings, too, are more defined, running to spots 

 more than blotches and streaks ; but in a large series 

 of the two species' eggs these characteristics will not 

 suffice to distinguish them. 



Round a bend of the cliff we come upon a pleasing 

 spectacle some thirty Cormorants incubating on the 

 table-like top of a stack rock, some eighty feet high 



LESSER BLACK-BACK GULLS. 



perhaps. Several nests are built on any convenient 

 ledge down its grey and rugged sides. One we 

 succeed in reaching by climbing, and it contains 

 four slightly incubated eggs. From this coign of 

 vantage we can see into some more nests of this 

 species, situate on the main cliff of the island, and 

 notice that at least one nest holds young, hideous in 



