THE HOME OF THE SHEARWATER 35 



examining an empty carrion's nest we stumbled across 

 a lovely bed of primroses, still in full flower in mid- June, 

 hidden in a rocky fastness. 



Amongst the herring-gulls, resting on the cliff and reluc- 

 tant to fly, was a brown-backed homer pigeon; how dare 

 it linger, for I saw it in the same place an hour later, close 

 to the eyrie of a pair of peregrines ? The tiercel flew 

 past, but did not see the pigeon. Jackdaws swarm on the 

 rocks in some places, and with cheeky familiarity feed 

 in the farmyards, and two pairs of choughs still manage 

 to rear their young on the steeper cliff faces. The red- 

 billed, red-legged birds flew over with their easy undu- 

 lating flight, very tame and very noisy; their loud, clear 

 " keeaw " easily distinguishable from the " jack " of the 

 daws. 



Linnets twittered over the gorse, lapwings called on the 

 lower slopes and in the fields below, cormorants and shags 

 flew by over the water; on the ledges and in crannies 

 below the edge of the cliffs guillemots and razor-bills were 

 crowded, and puffins were abundant on the sea. These 

 last do not appear, at any rate now, to nest on Bardsey, 

 but there are large colonies on islands in Cardigan Bay. 



While on the cliffs, looking down on the birds drifting 

 past us on the tide, we heard the clamour of gulls far away 

 in the distance. The birds were floating round or hover- 

 ing above some large dark object which kept appearing 

 above the surface, some strong swimmer who dived and 

 rose, his rounded head rolling up again and again. When 

 the whole party came racing past, for the waters hurry 

 everything along, we saw that the swimmer was a grey 

 seal playing with or killing a large fish. The gulls were 

 jealous of the prey and swooped again and again, but the 

 angry seal snapped at them when they came too near, 

 and once, springing high out of the water, nearly caught 

 a bird. 



