A VISIT TO THE CALF OP MAN. 165 



tatus, were hiding, motionless, on the bare stony surface, which 

 was strewed with long trailing sprays of the sea-beet, Beta 

 maritima. 



From the Stack northward the whole west coast of the Calf 

 was one great colony of Herring Gulls, the most extensive I have 

 met with. The cliffs here are less precipitous than under the 

 lighthouses, and the steep slopes of stony rubble, mixed with 

 grassy ledges and green sloping brows, are such ground as this 

 gull loves. Low down we saw Puffins coming out from the broken 

 ground near the bottom ; and here we went ashore, there being 

 no difficulty in landing anywhere on so calm a day. Among the 

 stones there was a rank growth of sea-campion and other plants, 

 and the surface was strewed with nests of the Herring Gull, mostly 

 empty, though one contained two eggs. Broken egg-shells of the 

 Puffin were lying around. In our hurried inspection, we saw in 

 one hole among the stones an egg, and in another a bird. Owing 

 to these burrows being under and among great fragments of rock, 

 they were in many instances quite impregnable. 



We drew the boat off, and, resting to lunch, looked up at the 

 vast brows, whose luxuriant upper ledges were blue with masses 

 of hyacinths, and here and there, in some sheltered spot, a streak 

 of pale yellow showed where the primroses grew plentifully in the 

 rich mould, the whole range being reflected softly in the glassy 

 water at its base. When we rowed on into the Sound, completing 

 our circumnavigation of " the Calf," the tide had turned, and our 

 Port St. Mary friend, a knowing pilot, told us to take in our oars. 

 Then, on a blue and golden sea, borne by a swift though smooth 

 tide, we drifted, as it were to some enchanted land, accompanied 

 by the fairy forms of the white sea-gulls. Flocks of these birds 

 rested on the water, and we noted that some of them would drift, 

 like ourselves, with the tide, and then fly up and return to the 

 spot from whence they started, to repeat the action as if for the 

 mere pleasure of the voyage. 



Throughout our return journey the tide still helped us, and, 

 passing the mainland cliffs again, we reached Port St. Mary in 

 time for the last train back to Douglas. 



During the day's excursion we met with two colonies of the 

 Lesser Black-backed Gull, Larusfuscus, and one of the Kittiwake, 

 L. tridactylus. I need not indicate the particular sites of these, 

 for although neither is rare as a British bird, and both are 



