382 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Aberystwith who knows the rock well that he has many times 

 seen it without a single Cormorant on it. They also say that 

 the younger birds conduct the old blind birds to the sea, which 

 I think is more likely to be true. 



At the foot of the rock were two dead birds that seemed to 

 have been shot when away, and to have flown home to die. 

 There were also several small rabbits feeding directly under the 

 rock, of which the Cormorants seemed to take no notice. The 

 nests, as far as I could see, never seemed to contain more than 

 three birds, and these must be able to fly well before they could 

 get from the rock to reach the sea, about four miles off. 



I watched the busy scene for more than an hour, and left 

 about half-past six, when fresh arrivals kept coming in from the 

 sea in little strings of four, five, and six. Instead of returning 

 to Abergynolwyn we drove about two miles and a half down the 

 valley towards Towyn, where we dismissed our driver, and walked 

 the remaining distance into Towyn, which is the route I should 

 advise any ornithologist visiting the rock to take. Charmed 

 beyond measure at a sight which to me was so novel, I have 

 here attempted to describe it. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Death of Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S.— We regret to have to record 

 the death of Mr. P. H. Gosse, whose name amongst naturalists has long 

 been a " household word"; for few men have done more than he has in 

 the course of a long life to popularize the study of Zoology by means of 

 his pleasantly written and often well illustrated works. Born at Worcester 

 in 1810 he went in early life to reside at Poole, in Dorsetshire, and it was here 

 he imbibed his taste for Natural History. Subsequently engaging in the 

 mercantile profession, he visited Newfoundland on business in 1827, and 

 remained there for eight years, during which time he found leisure to 

 study the insects of that country and of Lower Canada, where lie made an 

 important collection. Travelling through the United States, he spent a 

 year in Alabama, where he made a considerable number of drawings of 

 insects, chiefly Lepidoptera. In 1840, having returned to Eugland, he 

 published his ' Canadian Naturalist,' but his love of travel could not keep 

 him long in England ; proceeding to Jamaica in 1844, he spent eighteen 

 months in investigating the Natural History of that island, and making 



