12 THE ZOOLOGIST, 



" a certain Fisherman told us, that in the middle of Winter he 

 once found a Puffin under water, torpid, among the Rocks not 

 far from Bardsey Island, which being again cast into the Sea 

 streightway sank to the bottom. Believe it that will." But 

 Bardsey has always been a strange place, and is so still, as will 

 presently appear from what a man told me about the Frogs. 

 Twenty thousand saints, too, are buried here, albeit one writer 

 sagely remarks : " It would be much more facile to find graves in 

 Bardsey for so many saints, than saints for so many graves." 

 There are no Kittiwakes on Bardsey, and only a few Guillemots 

 and Razorbills. 



A head-wind on our return journey necessitated our hugging 

 the cliffs from Pen Cristin nearly to the northern extremity of 

 the island, and I could see no high cliff sheer from the sea with 

 ledges extensive enough to form a breeding station of the Alcida 

 of any importance. There are ledges which would do for Cor- 

 morants, and hollows for Shags, but I saw no large cave. Star- 

 lings, too, breed in the rocks, and, higher up, Jackdaws and a pair 

 of Peregrine Falcons. A large number of Herring-Gulls inhabit 

 the shelving — and, to some extent, sloping — cliffs immediately 

 above the sea ; but, with the exception of the Shearwaters and a 

 few other species, these are the only sea-fowl for which Bardsey 

 is now remarkable. 



There are, I was told, no " great snakes " on Bardsey ; only 

 " little small ones " (? Blindworms). The Vicar of Aberdaron, 

 in 1798, stated that " none of the inhabitants ever saw in it Frog, 

 Toad or snake of any kind." I inquired if there were any Frogs 

 now. " No," said my informant ; " and if any Frogs are brought 

 to the island they die — a}', and if you take of the earth of Bardsey, 

 and put it into where there are Frogs on the mainland, the Frogs 

 all die." " That," said I, " is what you have been told." " That 

 is what I have seen," he replied. " You have tried it yourself?" 

 I asked. " Yes, I have done it myself," said he. " And the 

 Frogs died ? " " Die they did," said he.* After that I said no 

 more ; and I merely add now, with the author of the ' Orni- 

 thology,' "believe it that will." There are Rabbits about the 

 low grounds, and some on the mountain, the latter having their 

 habitations chiefly among the stony rocks. Those that I saw 

 * Cf. Griraldus, of the Irish soil. 



