Birds by Land and Sea 



hip, may be thanked for a useful if prickly support, 

 seeing that they save one from sinking into less 

 definable depths. Moreover, there are sharper fangs 

 than those of bramble and briar in this thick dark 

 growth. I came across a whitethroat's nest in a 

 bramble growing in such a rocky fissure, and 

 leaping from one lip of the opening to the other 

 so as to inspect it from the sunny side, alighted 

 with parted feet upon a white slab of limestone. 

 The view presented as I alighted consisted of a 

 pair of low canvas shoes over thin socks framing an 

 adder upon a square foot of rock. The sudden 

 horror which the sight aroused held me fixed to the 

 spot, watching the foreparts of the creature straighten 

 out, and the rings uncoil with what seemed horrible 

 deliberateness, as it slid through my heels and down 

 the fissure behind. What might have happened if I 

 had alighted right upon it, Heaven only knows. It is 

 to be hoped that the adder was as much scared as I 

 was, in which case it will not want to see a pair of 

 human feet for some time to come. 



The next line of cliffs, and the highest of any 

 east of Red Wharf Bay, is the Caregonen Rocks. 

 They rise about five hundred feet sheer from the 

 sea, which at no time is far from their rock-strewn 

 base. 



There are several gulleries containing herring- 

 gulls and kittiwakes on the way, but the Caregonen 

 Rocks are the first cormorant station of any impor- 

 tance in this corner of Anglesey. It is from these 



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