THE BIRDS OF BABDSEY ISLAND. 109 



I thought. I saw several on their nests in the cave ; others I saw on 

 their nests at Pen y Oil. 



Great Black-backed Gull. — A pair has been known to breed on 

 Careg ddu, and another on the mainland at the far end. One can 

 never be certain of finding a particular nesting spot occupied in any 

 particular year. 



Guillemot. — I visited, in a boat, a small colony in Ogof urel 

 (? uriel), at Pen y Cil, on May 24th. The birds on the ledges were all 

 facing the sea, and probably had not laid their eggs. A local name 

 used here and on Bardsey is "Aron" or " Arron." It is probably 

 onomatopoetic. I have never previously met with this curious name 

 in use, although I believe I have seen it in print somewhere. How- 

 ever, I have searched in a great many books, old and new, without 

 finding it. 



Mr. Coward, to whom I am again indebted for the valuable 

 notes he made, has given me particulars of the great breeding 

 station of sea-birds on the Bird Rock near Nevin, which I have 

 not yet visited. It is three or four hundred feet high. Near the 

 top are Cormorants and a few Herring-Gulls ; lower down, 

 Guillemots and Razorbills in thousands, and below them again 

 great numbers of Kittiwakes. Jackdaws, Carrion-Crows, and 

 Rock-Pipits were among the other birds noticed. No Lesser 

 Black-backed Gulls were seen, but a pair of Larus marinus 

 haunted a small stack, which, however, held neither eggs nor 

 young. As far as I am aware, the Lesser Black-backed Gull is rare 

 in Lleyn, and I know of no instance of its breeding in the district. 

 Mr. Coward saw one between Pwllheli and Llanbedrogg on June 

 3rd, 1887, and two on Llanbedrogg Head four days later. Her- 

 ring-Gulls used to breed on the headland there, but the part of 

 the cliff they bred on has since been quarried away. I have only 

 very occasionally seen the Lesser Black-backed Gull in Lleyn in 

 May and June. 



The Lesser Whitethroat and Ray's Wagtail must be struck 

 off the Lleyn list for the present. The inclusion of the former 

 rests on the identification of a single egg found in a nest near 

 Abersoch. Mr. Coward submitted the egg at the time to a high 

 authority, who confirmed his identification of it. He has recently 

 been kind enough to show the egg to me, and I believe it is only 

 an abnormal egg of the Common Whitethroat. Neither Mr. 



