IRISH BREEDING-STATIONS OF THE GANNET. 481 



of a mackerel. The harsh croaking cry of the Gannets was 

 very striking. They are courageous birds : numbers of them 

 sat while blasting took place close by, the splinters falling in 

 showers around them, while Eazorbills might be seen looking 

 out of their nooks from under the very avalanche of debris. 

 These quarrying operations have desolated a large portion of the 

 rock, which is strewn with broken eggs of Eazorbills and 

 Guillemots. The former species is far the most numerous on 

 the Bull Eock. Comparatively few Puffins breed, the rocky 

 nature of the island and the absence of vegetable soil obliging 

 them to lay under rock fragments and in fissures. Kittiwakes 

 have garnished the lower cliffs with their numerous nests, but 

 very few Herring Gulls or Lesser Black-backs breed on the Bull. 

 There was also an absence of Cormorants, Shags, Oyster- 

 catchers and Terns ; although on the Cow, another lofty rock 

 about a mile and a quarter distant and 215 feet in height, we 

 noticed a colony of Cormorants and many Herring Gulls, but no 

 Gannets. The most striking plant on the Bull Eock is the 

 Lavatera arborea, which grows on its summit to a height of four 

 feet. During our subsequent coasting voyage we noticed a pair 

 of Black Guillemots at Cod's Head, Co. Cork, and others in 

 Ballinskelligs Bay. 



On the 11th June we left Port Magee for the Skelligs, but 

 after rowing an hour a heavy sea deterred our boatmen. We 

 were then off the north side of Puffin Island, whose knife- 

 backed ridge rose to our left against a sky covered with swarms 

 of birds that breed in these cliffs. Manx Shearwaters, with 

 their light flight, were skimming the sea around us. 



We then rowed round the eastern extremity of Puffin Island, 

 which is the lowest and nearest the mainland, from which it is 

 distant only a furlong. Here a colony of Terns took wing. 

 These from their slaty colour appeared to be Arctic Terns. On 

 landing we found the surface where they breed composed of 

 laminated rock on edge, in the interstices of which were several 

 pairs of their eggs slightly incubated. Oystercatchers and Wheat- 

 ears were breeding close by, and Eock Pipits numerous. 



We then proceeded along the island, which is about a mile 

 in length, but uninhabited. The noithern side is a series of 

 precipices 474 feet high, but the southern side, though steep, is 

 clothed with thrift, forming a peat soil beneath it. Along this 



