SUMMER IN LLEYN. 101 



forenoon. A boatman told me on the 27th that numbers of 

 " Mackerel Cocks " were round his boat early in the morning ; 

 and the next day, about 8.30 a.m. — a calm, hot morning — some 

 little way off shore where the Mackerel-boats were, I saw 

 numbers passing up and down in parties of about a dozen. 

 They kept a straight course for some distance, flying just over 

 the surface. Now all flapped their wings together a few times, 

 then all skimmed again. Presently all the little groups gathered 

 in one place where they were very busy flying up and down and 

 settling on the sea and rising again ; they made a long black 

 line on the sea and there must have been great numbers of them. 

 I got a downy young one out of a hole. A most lovely little 

 thing ; the grey down which covers most of the bird — an inch 

 and a quarter long on the back — is of a beautiful silky texture 

 and of a darkish pearl-grey with almost a blue-grey tinge. The 

 arrangement of the white on the under parts is very pretty. It 

 is more than twenty years since my old friend the late Eev. 

 H. A. Macpherson called my attention to it. Writing on board 

 the s.s. ' Claymore ' on his way from spending a week on Eigg, 

 he sent me a sketch of a downy young one lying belly upwards. 

 But as the young bird seems to be little known even now, I will 

 complete the description of it here. The white starts at the 

 chin, is continued down the neck and breast in a broad band to 

 the upper part of the belly, here it divides, and, enclosing a 

 patch of grey, joins again at the end of the body. Beak lead 

 colour. Legs marked almost as in the old bird, but the colours 

 less distinct. The little fellow uttered a lively "chirp" with a 

 piping sound about it. 



Almost all the Guillemots and Razorbills had left the cliff 

 on St. Tudwal's with what young ones they managed to rear 

 despite the Herring-Gulls, which rob them heavily. There were 

 a good many on the sea between the islands. Of the few 

 Guillemots left on the cliff only one or two had young that we 

 could see (they are taken off when quite small). We also saw 

 three eggs. The few that breed on Ynys Gwylan fawr had left 

 the rocks, and were scattered over the sea a little way off ; but 

 there must have been some late breeding birds on the ledges at 

 Pen Cilan, for when walking along the top I could hear the loud 

 " arrrr " come up sometimes. The Shag is now the bird of the 



