NOTES ON THE BIBDS OF ANGLESEA. 221 



single nest. All four birds, however, flew to and fro with the 

 Herring-Gulls, clamouring incessantly ; they certainly behaved 

 as if both pairs were nesting. The nest we found here was a 

 flat structure of sea-pink and grass torn up by the roots, placed 

 on the bare rock at the highest point of the headland. Two 

 young birds — pale grey tinged with yellow, and boldly spotted 

 with black, legs and bill lead-colour — were crouching close 

 together about three feet from the nest. They could not have 

 been long hatched, for the horny nails were still on the tips of 

 their bills. The coloration of the nestlings is eminently pro- 

 tective, and had we not seen the nest and the egg-shells lying 

 near we should probably have passed them by as they lay still 

 on the grey lichen-covered rock. 



At Pen-y-Parc there is a large colony of Herring-Gulls ; 

 Sheld-Ducks, too, nest there, as they do between the headland 

 and Aberffraw, and on the northern shore of the Malldraeth 

 Estuary. Several Cormorants and Shags were resting on a reef 

 near the Point, but we saw no nests of the larger and only one 

 of the smaller species. This nest was in a crevice splashed with 

 much white excrement ; the sitting bird, alarmed, left the nest 

 and joined its mate, which was fishing at the foot of the cliff. A 

 pair of Eavens nest here annually, but apparently with in- 

 different success ; in 1901 Mr. Cummings saw the dead young 

 ones — stoned from above — in the nest. The following year the 

 nest, built in another site, contained newly-hatched young early 

 in April. This year the nest was in the old site, but it had 

 either been blown out or intentionally destroyed when Mr. Cum- 

 mings saw it. In October, 1901, we saw a couple of Eavens 

 flying along the cliffs near the South Stack. Mr. Cummings 

 saw a Purple Sandpiper at close quarters on the rocks near 

 Pen-y-Parc on March 18th, 1903 (Zool. 1903, p. 154). 



We noticed a few Curlews in different places on the coast, 

 and on June 10th a couple of Eedshanks on the beach near Ehos 

 Neigr, and three near Llangwyfan ; but in the breeding season 

 these two species, so abundant on the Anglesea coast at other 

 times, are infrequent. On May 29th there were three Whimbrels 

 on Penrhos Beach, near Holyhead, and on the same day we saw 

 six feeding in a field of young corn near the mouth of the Alaw. 

 One was calling at dusk near Ehos Neigir on June 9th, and we 



