34 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



cool, sweet water when all the other sources have given 

 out. Below this well are several hollows to contain 

 water for the sheep; in one of these hollows I found the 

 rarest but most widely distributed of our newts, the 

 palmated newt. Is this the only batrachian on the 

 island ? Bingley was told that there were no toads, 

 frogs, or snakes on Bardsey, and a friend of mine who 

 visited the island made enquiries, and was informed that 

 no " great snakes " occurred, only " little small ones." 

 What these were we neither of us discovered. Frogs, 

 my friend was told, could not live on Bardsey, and Bardsey 

 earth, if taken to the mainland, was fatal to the frogs 

 where it was put down. The man who told him affirmed 

 that he had tried this and that the frogs died. The 

 sacred earth or the curse of the saints has apparently 

 failed to banish all the " reptiles," for this one newt, 

 which also occurs in a pool above St. Mary's Well near 

 Braich-y-pwll, is here, an interesting problem in distribu- 

 tion. High on the mountain at the northern end, where 

 we look out across the ever racing tides to furthest Lleyn, 

 is another well, or rather two. These are the pilgrims' 

 wells, two deep holes in the rock, always filled with not 

 overclean water; in the old days, tradition says, it was 

 here the pilgrims went to wash and shave. 



Herring-gulls, in a huge colony, nest along the top of 

 the cliffs on the eastern side of the island; their nests 

 containing eggs or grey-downed young were placed even 

 on the narrow sheep-track which runs between the actual 

 rocks and the slippery slope above. A pair of greater 

 black-backs nest amongst them, and oyster-catchers, 

 by their excitement, proved that they, too, were interested 

 in young. Rock pipits piped anxiously when we invaded 

 the colony, but their notes were drowned by the barks 

 and laughs of the angry gulls. A few carrion crows build 

 on the rocks, and one or two pairs of kestrels; when 



