42 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



blew hard from the sea at night, and it was from the S.W., when 

 it was thick and misty at sea, that the heavy dull clouds came 

 drifting in. But little rain fell — on the south coast, at all events 

 — there being no high ground for the clouds to catch on ; about 

 Nevin and the Bivals, on the north coast, I believe much more 

 rain falls. 



On some days the grey sky was broken and dappled and 

 streaked with blue for part of the day, and gleams of pale sun- 

 shine lighted up bits of the country for a few moments ; but 

 even then dark mists were brooding over the land, and clouds 

 shrouded the hills. From Feb. 2nd to 12th the hills and earns 

 were never clear, and I did not get a glimpse of the more distant 

 mountains. A dark, misty, cloudy land in winter, this seems 

 to be ; the sea disposed to be grey and angry, and to roar at 

 night without much provocation. Llanbedrog Head and St. 

 Tudwal's islands, conspicuous objects in the summer view from 

 Pwllheli, were often lost in thick sea-fog. I missed those bril- 

 liantly clear February evenings we know so well in Oxon, when 

 the air seems absolutely transparent, and the paired Partridges 

 are calling about the fallows. But on Feb. 12th the wind shifted 

 to the N.W. in the forenoon, and we had a bright day, with the 

 hills and earns all clear. 



As I drove back from Nevin in the early dusk, the after- 

 glow of a calm evening lighted up the gorse and the firs, red- 

 dened the bare woods, and touched the tawny bracken on the 

 banks into the bit of necessary colour that the gorse, already 

 putting forth blossoms, was not yet strong enough in bloom to 

 supply. Even the whitewashed cottages had a rosy flush on 

 their walls, similar to that which would soon be coming on the 

 breasts of the Black-headed Gulls which followed up the spring 

 ploughing so assiduously. Carn Madryn was finely cut against 

 the glowing sky. I had been to see how the grand old Bird Eock 

 looked in its winter aspect. It is a beautiful coast about Nevin, 

 summer or winter ; this afternoon the edges of the barren rocky 

 hills were cut clear and hard, and the sea was bluish and bright- 

 looking. 



The Bird Bock looked very fine, and had a hardness of out- 

 line in this cold translucent atmosphere which one does not 

 notice in the soft air of May. The greys and pinks of the rock, 



