3602 The Zoologist — July, 1873. 



protected, and on no account were any eggs allowed to be taten, 

 especially as the birds had been incubating a fortnight: we 

 procured as many as we wanted, however, from the lighthouse- 

 keepers, who Jiad taken them this season when freshly laid, at 

 which time they are much valued as food. The nests were 

 placed about a foot from each other, close to the base of the 

 lighthouse, and were formed of sea-weed and dried grass. These 

 birds arrive and depart regularly at the same time in the spring 

 and autumn, and are very jealous of their tenements, not allowing 

 even their own young to nest amongst them. The lighthouse- 

 keeper informed us that a party of lesser blackbacked gulls once 

 tried to establish a colony on this rock, but were speedily ousted 

 by the herring gulls. They also nest on grassy ledges here and 

 there along the west coast of the island wherever the rocks are not 

 too steep. 



Cormorant. — There is a small colony of cormorants which breed 

 on very steep rocks between the North and South Stack Light- 

 houses ; but as they nest on the most precipitous ledges their eggs 

 are rarely obtained, nor could we hear of any one who had any, 

 though we made numerous inquiries. 



Oijstercalcher. — On leaving the South Stack we continued 

 our walk along the south-west coast, but the only birds we 

 met with nesting were oystercatchers, of which we found four 

 or five nests, each containing three eggs. The nests were 

 placed in small hollows amongst the stunted grass on the rocky 

 promontories, generally about thirty feet above the sea, each pair 

 of birds occupying a rock to itself. In all cases we disturbed the 

 old bird from its nest, which was composed of small pieces of 

 broken rock, shells and drift-wood ; and in one instance, where 

 rabbits were particularly numerous, on a small rocky island in the 

 channel between Holyhead Island and Anglesea, the nest was 

 partly made of their dung: we also met with a nest, in a sandy bay 

 at the foot of some sand-hills, composed entirely of small pebbles 

 and broken shells. In every instance the old birds flew anxiously 

 around us, uttering loud and oft-repeated whistles as long as we 

 stayed in the neighbourhood of their nests. 



Sanderling, 8fc. — We observed a small flock of sanderlings on a 

 long piece of shingle, where the ringed plover was nesting, and a 

 few common sandpipers and turnstones here and there along the 

 coast. 



