NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF ANGLE SEA. 409 



0. V. Aplin, to whom we are indebted for calling our attention 

 to Pennant's description, has not so far found it nesting on the 

 coast of Lleyn. 



The Kittiwakes were restricted to a short stretch of low 

 precipitous cliffs on the northern side, where they had availed 

 themselves of the slightest projections on which to place their 

 apparently inadequate nests. In addition to the small colony on 

 the island, a few pairs were nesting at one spot on the adjacent 

 mainland. Though there were many Cormorants standing with 

 outspread wings on the rocks, none appear to nest now on Puffin ; 

 nor did we see Shags here, or, indeed, in any other part of the 

 district. Except on the seaward side, the cliffs are hardly steep 

 enough for Guillemots or Razorbills, but a fair number of each 

 were breeding in proximity to the Kittiwakes. 



The thrift-covered turf slope above the cliffs on the western 

 side is honeycombed with the burrows of Puffins, but the colony 

 cannot compare in size with others which we have visited on the 

 coast of Wales. The birds were brooding in their holes, and at 

 every few steps, as we crossed the turf, one would bustle out, fly 

 down the slope, just clear of the ground, and drop diagonally to 

 the water. The Puffin appears to have formerly resorted to the 

 island in much greater numbers, for Bingley (' A Tour through 

 North Wales,' 1800) says : — "I had a sight of upwards of Fifty 

 Acres of Land literally covered with Puffins, and my Calculation 

 is much within Compass, when I declare that the Numbers here, 

 must have been more than Fifty Thousand." 



It is asserted that the Puffins were at one time almost, if not 

 entirely, driven away by the Rats, which had taken refuge on the 

 island from the wreck of a Prussian vessel in 1816 or 1817. Bell 

 ('British Quadrupeds,' 2nd edit. p. 313), referring to this occur- 

 rence, says that not only were the Puffins evicted, but the vast 

 numbers of Rabbits with which the island was stocked were 

 destroyed by the Rats, which soon overran the place. The birds 

 certainly do not now resort to the island in anything like the 

 numbers mentioned by Bingley, and it is possible that they 

 suffered from the increase of the Rats, but it is doubtful if they 

 were ever entirely banished. The old sexton at Penmon assured 

 us that, when he was a boy, his father used to visit the island in 

 July for the purpose of collecting the nestling Puffins, of which 



