ST ALDHELM'S HEAD 89 



become very rare, and its ancient eyrie at Durlston 

 Head is untenanted. 



But if civilisation has been hostile to such species as 

 the raven, the chough and the peregrine, it has in no 

 wise interfered with the vast number of sea-fowl which 

 frequent the coast every spring. Except on the per- 

 pendicular chalk cliffs of Freshwater, there is perhaps 

 no spot in the south of England where sea-fowl breed 

 in such numbers as on the oolite cliffs of Purbeck. The 

 puffins are usually the first to appear, coming in from 

 the sea, almost to a day, during the last week in March. 

 They are quickly followed by the razor-bills and guille- 

 mots. In greater numbers still the herring-gulls con- 

 gregate on the cliffs, occupying every available ledge 

 and cranny. A wonderful sight it is to pass in a little 

 boat beneath the long line of perpendicular rocks, and 

 to watch the wild-fowl gulls and puffins and razor- 

 bills and guillemots, and it may be a colony of cormor- 

 ants or a pair of glossy green-black shags as they sit 

 in myriads on the ledges, or break forth from the face of 

 the cliff with loud and frightened cries. 



As would not unnaturally be expected, a number of 

 rare and interesting plants flourish out of harm's way 

 on the magnificent rocks which guard the coast of Pur- 

 beck. Formerly the wild sea-cabbage, the parent of 

 our cutlivated garden varieties, was plentiful, and may 

 still be seen in several places ; but for some unknown 

 reason it has become scarcer on the Dorset coast, as in 

 many other parts of England. A relative of the sea- 

 cabbage, known as black-mustard, is, however, abund- 

 ant, and is the characteristic plant on the sloping cliffs 

 of Durlston Bay, where, with teazle and burdock, with 

 ox-tongue and hound's-tongue, with wood-sage and 



