144 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



then rejoined its mate. Presently they all rose, flipped over the 

 wall, and settled again to feed in a sheep pasture. I do not know 

 what was the state of these birds' domestic arrangements, but 

 they evidently had not got young ; and their leisurely behaviour 

 was very different from that of the busy pushful Jackdaws, which 

 in a constant stream came up over a sheer cliff-edge and made 

 their way to the fields, while a persistent succession of returning 

 birds dropped into space and, wheeling round, made for the cliff- 

 face. The numbers of Jackdaws breeding along this coast is 

 astonishing, both here and in other parts of North Wales. Any- 

 one watching the ways of the gentle Choughs must, I think, have 

 the sad conviction forced upon them that these birds are not of 

 the fittest to survive. Some Pigeons haunting the cliffs near the 

 end of Pen Cilan, in company with Stock-Doves, were merel}' 

 domestic Pigeons gone wild ; they had no white on their backs. 

 Trwyn Cilan is a magnificent headland, rising to a height of up- 

 wards of three hundred feet. At one spot is a grand perpen- 

 dicular cliff-face, formed by a landslip, of nearly horizontal 

 strata. It is somewhat irregular of outline, and slopes up from 

 the east until it attains its height, and then merges into the long 

 grassy gorse-dotted slope of the headland which has not slipped. 

 At the foot of the cliff the mass of fallen rock and earth, which 

 fell long ago, forms a steep green gorsy slope. The cliff-face is 

 much weather-stained, grey-green in places with long hanging 

 lichen, or brilliantly green with ivy, and brightened with a few 

 patches of pink thi'ift and white sea-campion. Facing about 

 south-east this cliff and undercliff afford a warm and sheltered 

 spot for birds. A few Herring- Gulls and many Jackdaws were 

 breeding ; some Wheatears flitted about, and Eock-Pipits were 

 pretty common. At the top the seaward slopes here, as else- 

 where along this coast, were in some places coloured a pale grey- 

 blue, so thickly did the beautiful little Scilla verna stud the turf. 

 I found several plants bearing white flowers, and one with the 

 blossoms white faintly tinged with pink. In more broken ground 

 this delicate squill, thickly mingled with dwarf examples of dark 

 blue Scilla nutans, produced a breadth of blended colour which 

 would have called forth the admiration of the planter of the most 

 formal bulb-beds. Herring-Gulls breed here and there all along 

 the range of cliffs from Pistyll Cim to Hell's Mouth, as well as 



