NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF ANGLE SEA. 217 



most Puffin colonies, is what they frequently do. Some birds 

 were evidently brooding in cracks and crannies in the rock 

 where there was no turf. 



We saw a single Shag fishing near the North Stack on June 

 4th, and Cormorants are familiar objects on this rock-bound 

 coast. Two pairs of the latter species were nesting on a vertical 

 cliff between the Stacks, and a colony of at least fifteen pairs 

 occupied some overhung ledges to the south of the South Stack. 



The indented rocky coast south-west from Penrhyn-mawr to 

 the strait which separates the island from the Anglesea main- 

 land has no cliff high enough for Gulls or Cormorants to nest 

 on ; and, as on the west coast, the little bays lack sufficient beach 

 to attract Einged Plovers and Lesser Terns. The Oystercatcher, 

 however, abounds here, as indeed everywhere in Anglesea ; the 

 low broken cliffs and isolated stacks afford abundant nesting 

 sites. In spring and early summer the turf above these low 

 cliffs is ablaze with flowers ; after the primroses and vernal 

 squills have faded, bluebells and sea-pinks come to perfection ; 

 sea-campion in great white masses, and other plants which do 

 not flourish in more exposed situations, mantle the walls of the 

 deep narrow fissures, where Carrion-Crow and Kestrel nest. 

 Here and there between the South Stack and Porth Dafarch one 

 sees the striking yellow flowers of Senecio spathulcefolius, one of 

 the most local of our British plants. 



At Pihos Colyn, some four to five hundred yards from the 

 shore, are two low bare stacks, which are occupied by a large 

 colony of Arctic Terns. As a rule, apparently, this species is 

 later in nesting than the Common Tern. On June 12th, 1903, 

 and on the same date the year before, many Common Terns in 

 the colony at Ynys-yr-adar had incubated eggs, but on June 9th 

 this year there were no Arctic Terns on the Khos Colyn stacks, 

 though the birds were fishing at sea. On June 12th, 1897, when 

 we visited the stacks, we found only one egg, but on June 19th, 

 1891, there were hundreds — fresh, or but slightly incubated. In 

 some cases the scanty nests were made of the long tufted lichen 

 which the birds had plucked from the rocks ; in several instances 

 the eggs were laid on dried grass-stems or a few Ptabbit-bones, 

 which the birds must have carried from the land, for there are 

 no Ptabbits on the stacks, nor, indeed, is there any vegetation 



Zool. 4th aer. vol. IX., June, 1905. > s 



