SEA-BIRD COLONIES IS THE ISLE OF MAN. 389 



undisturbed security. But it is rather in the less precipitous 

 and more varied surfaces on the other side of the strand that the 

 gulls delight. Part of these slopes are covered with a rank 

 abundance of the common nettle, and about here the nests are 

 thickly scattered, usually in situations a little sheltered by some 

 beetling brow. A little further south is another isolated rock, 

 the " Cashtal Vooar," now commonly called, from its pointed 

 horn, " The Church," and on its sea-side is another Shag-roost, 

 while on its verdant top, and on the long steep brow of the main- 

 land slope opposite, are more gulls' nests. Where the brow ends 

 abruptly in a low steep cliff Shags' nests are pushed back into its 

 shallow crevices between the overhanging ledges. In spite of the 

 law, the Herring Gulls' nests are persistently robbed wherever 

 they can be reached, but they nevertheless frequent the same 

 spots year after year, as, for instance, on the brow just named, 

 where there is no difficulty in walking down to and among them. 

 The nests vary as much as do the eggs, from a few stalks of 

 Cochlearia to a massive and almost neat structure of fine dry 

 grass and leaves of the Thrift. I have never seen a single Black- 

 backed Gull at this station. 



Half-a-mile further south, also, at Traie Cabbage, so called 

 from the Sea-kale, whose masses of blue foliage and white bloom 

 enliven the strand, many Herring Gulls breed, and I have noticed 

 that among the boulders of the beach there is one place that for 

 twelve years or so has never failed to have a few nests. South 

 of this shore are some lovely cliff-edges, where, in early summer, 

 the sward is rich with rose-coloured Thrift, lilac-blue Squill, white 

 Feverfew, and Campion, forming a very garden of blossom. Here 

 and there, where some clear inlet leads to its cavern decked with 

 glossy Sea-spleenwort, a Shag or two breeds. At the Gob-ny- 

 Chassan, the extreme southern limit of the birds here, is a small 

 but pretty colony of Razorbills, as well as a few at another point 

 nearer Peel. When the tide is far out, the former station may be 

 walked past. I think it has been established only within the last 

 fifteen years. 



Close to the Gob-ny-Chassan is the Ooig Vooar Cave, one 

 of the finest on the island. Both here and at Traie Cabbage 

 Jackdaws are abundant. For some little distance south of Glen- 

 may, round the low point of the Niarbyl, no colonies are to be 

 seen, but others are to be observed after passing the strand into 



