Puffin Island 



the rocky head above, and made their way in single 

 file to the Anglesey shore opposite. 



As viewed from the Anglesey side, Puffin Island 

 in its form resembles a hollowed hand placed palm 

 downwards upon the water. It is roughly elliptical, 

 about half a mile long by a quarter of a mile broad, 

 the major axis lying on a north-east and south-west 

 line. The side presented in the view faces north- 

 west. A bed of limestone, shorn off all round in 

 steep cliffs except at the landing-place, was covered 

 by a cap of sloping turf, treeless, and only at one 

 point on the eastern side supporting a few patches of 

 weed and stunted thorns, their knotty limbs eloquent 

 of life-long battle with the storm. 



Ascending by a path from the landing-place, we 

 followed the cliff on the western side (we will call 

 the sides of the island west and east for convenience), 

 and here fell in with a colony of herring-gulls and 

 a few lesser black-backed gulls. The date of the visit 

 I am describing was the loth of June, and the colony 

 was evidently in full breeding swing at the time, 

 nests with eggs or chicks occurring at every few 

 steps, so that one had need of care to avoid doing 

 mischief. The nests large accumulations of fern- 

 roots and weed when on level ground, but more 

 scantily furnished when some natural hollow had 

 been used were placed on the turf at the top of 

 the cliffs, or on ledges of rock where turf and rock 

 met. As may be readily imagined, the gulls gave 

 us a warm reception as we moved about among their 



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