THE BIRDS OF BARDSEY ISLAND. 11 



or nearly all, Herring-Gulls' eggs. Pennant, who visited the 

 island on one of his Tours (about the year 1774-75), said it was 

 " well cultivated and productive of everything which the main- 

 land affords " ; but he does not mention the birds at all, though 

 his visit was evidently made in the summer ; and he would surely 

 have done so had there been any remarkable gathering of them. 

 He mentions the Puffins at St. Tudwal's. There are no Puffins 

 on Bardsey now, and, although it is distinctly stated in Book III. 

 of the ' Ornithology ' that the Puffins bred yearly in Bardsey in 

 great numbers, I think this is a little doubtful. The author, or 

 his editor, may have seen the Puffins belonging to Ynys Gwylan, 

 which are scattered over the sea near Bardsey in the summer, 

 and concluded that they bred on the latter island. The low part 

 of the island is, indeed, suitable for Puffins, but the greater part 

 of it has long been under cultivation. In 1798 Bardsey had 

 seventy inhabitants, engaged in fishing and agriculture. In more 

 remote days it was apparently even more thickly populated, and 

 it was visited by a great many pilgrims. It was called by the 

 Welsh poets the Sanctuary of Saints, and the Isle of Refuge. 

 The reputed sanctity of the island induced the religious to resort 

 to it from many very distant parts of the kingdom. The mon- 

 astery (of which the ruins remain) is said to have been founded 

 in the eighth century, but there is evidence that there was 

 a religious house in the island at a much more early date. The 

 odour of sanctity clung to the place down to Pennant's time. 

 When the foundations of one of the new farms was laid, old gold 

 coins, "each worth two guineas," were found; and it is said that 

 one could not dig deeply in one part without finding them. This 

 means pilgrims, and a well-found monastery ; for, though many 

 would come empty, the full paid for all. The coming and going of 

 so many people must have made Bardsey anything but a " lonely 

 resort of sea-fowl," and the demands upon the eggs of those that 

 bred there must have been large. This state of things can hardly 

 have co-existed with a large Puffin-warren on the lower part of 

 Bardsey, where the farms lie. The mountain could never have 

 accommodated them, I should think. The soil is shallow, and 

 there are not sufficient holes and crevices under and in the rocks 

 to house a large Puffin population. Willughby, and his editor 

 Ray, gathered a good deal from hearsay. They relate that 



