THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 209,— May, 1894, 



A NATURALIST'S VISIT TO THE CALF OF MAN. 

 By P. Ralfe. 



The southern extremity of Man, with the adjoining rocky 

 islet, has long been well known as a sea-bird station, and has 

 acquired a classic celebrity as the early recognised breeding-place 

 of Puffinus anglorum, which received thence its trivial English 

 name. Sir Wm. Jardine's ' British Birds ' contain many allusions to 

 bird-colonies as they existed there half-a-century ago. I have many 

 times visited this locality, but in the summer of 1892 was able to 

 explore its recesses more fully than ever before, although less 

 completely than I could have wished. The long mountain range 

 which forms the main portion of the Isle of Man ends at the 

 south in a small stretch of low land, on which stands the town of 

 Castletown, and which crosses the isle, here reduced to a mile in 

 breadth, from Port St. Mary to Port Erin. Beyond this level 

 strip rises another mass of rugged though comparatively low 

 upland, of an oblong shape, about two miles by one mile and 

 a half, partly cultivated and partly covered with heath, on which 

 stands, with the bare moor rising behind its cottages, and bearing 

 near its summit (430 feet above sea-level) a beautiful and perfect 

 pre-historic stone-circle, the old-world village of Cregneish. This 

 piece of upland, which forms the south-western extremity of 

 Man, is called — or at least its highest point is called — the Mull 

 (variously spelled, but locally pronounced "Myool"). Its coast, 

 precipitous all round, comprises the highest sheer cliffs of Man. 

 Beyond this is a rocky strait, 300 yards wide, and across it another 

 rugged isolated hill, the so-called Calf of Man. 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL, XVIII, — MAY, 1894. O 



