WITH THE SEA BIRDS AT TENBY 225 



their nakedness. Cormorants' nests smell abominably, 

 owing to the decomposing remains of fish in and 

 around them, not to mention the pools of liquid 

 guano collected in all the rock shallows. The eggs, 

 too, have a curiously rancid smell, even on the exterior. 

 Just here, too, a colony of quaint, gaudy-beaked 

 Sea Parrots, as the Puffin is often called, have their 



CORMORANTS AND GULLS. 



summer quarters. Most of the nests are in irregularly 

 dug holes at the grassy summit of the cliff, but some 

 few are in crannies far down the sheer rocks. After 

 some rather energetic digging with a trowel we 

 succeed in bringing a Puffin or two to hand, and are 

 thus enabled to examine them at leisure, taking good 

 care, however, to keep our fingers out of harm's way, 

 for this species can, if so inclined, inflict a severe bite. 



16 



