SEA-BIRD COLONIES IN THE ISLE OF MAN. 391 



similar scenery, and much the same birds. On its northern parts 

 many Herring Gulls breed, some on a series of craggy steeps 

 hardly accessible, others near the inlet called Ghaw Dhoo, on 

 brows where one can easily walk amongst them. Shags nest, but 

 not in any numbers, in two or three places not approachable by 

 land. Well on the Fleshwick side of Bradda is a cavernous 

 opening occupying the inmost part of a recess between the two 

 points. In this, and apparently confined to a very small space, 

 is a colony of perhaps 150 Razorbills and Guillemots mixed. 

 When I scrambled down to the low point called " Amulty," from 

 which I could see the place, at a short distance, but across deep 

 cavernous inlets, the birds streamed around in ceaseless circles 

 in exactly the same beat, till the eye was weary of watching 

 the constantly recurring procession. 



On the high southern cliffs of the island and on the Calf, 

 sea-bird life is more abundant and varied than elsewhere, the 

 perpendicular-ledged faces about the Bay Stacka and the Sound, 

 and the isolation of the Calf islet, offering the greatest facilities 

 and protection to the true rock-breeders. I have already some- 

 what imperfectly described these colonies, and will not at present 

 dwell further on them ; they merit more minute investigation 

 than I have ever been able to bestow upon them. 



On the east the colonies are, as I have stated, more 

 scattered. The most southern of these is a short distance from 

 that well-known trippers' haunt, Port Soderick, but of the 

 thousands whom the railway brings there very few row round 

 the point of the Lhiack, or mount the abrupt rounded hill which 

 marks the breeding-places, at least before such birds as local 

 plunderers have spared have taken their departure. The colony 

 is only of small extent, and shelters only Herring Gulls, with 

 the usual odd Black-backs, a number of Shags which seem to 

 leave in spring only their immature birds, and a non-breeding 

 Cormorant or two. 



From the summit of the high ground an apology for a track 

 leads down, past great plants of Foxglove, so characteristic of Man, 

 which in May have not yet displayed their rich spikes, over stony 

 debris beneath overhanging juts of crag, to a shadowy recess all 

 white with luxuriant beds of Cochlearia, emitting a faintly sweet 

 scent. The water which makes this plant flourish so trickles 

 from the cliff above, through the rubbish and rock-splinters half- 



