106 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Gulls — an odd contrast in colour. We found the nest on an 

 overhung ledge of rock (near the south end, where the island is 

 very rugged) so detached from the rest as to make the nest very 

 difficult if not impossible to reach. With a stick, however, we 

 took the two fresh eggs it contained. The nest was a very 

 slight affair for a Crow, with no more than a bed of dead plants 

 and some cow-hair (which must have come from the mainland) 

 and wool. The eggs were small and curiously brown — quite 

 abnormal in fact. I am inclined to think that this pair were 

 very old birds, which had chosen this unusual place to nest in 

 thinking they would be sure of getting an easy living among 

 plenty of young Gulls and eggs. The date, too, was extra- 

 ordinarily late for fresh eggs, and might have been postponed 

 for the same reason. I saw a great many Herring-Gulls' nests 

 with two or three eggs ; all seemed fresh or only slightly 

 incubated. An Oystercatcher's nest with one egg was merely a 

 hollow in the black soil of a cornice of rock and turf. The cries 

 of this bird can be heard a long way off. One evening when I 

 was on the headland off which the islands lie, the Oystercatchers 

 thereon were for some reason very excited and noisy ; their cries 

 sounded surprisingly loud, although they were three or four 

 furlongs from where I stood. Two Puffin's eggs I tried were 

 one-third sat upon in one case, and incubation begun in the 

 other. There is a little grass on the outer island and much 

 " spurrey " (i. e. seaside sandwort-spurrey or sea-sandwort, 

 Spergularia rubra marina, or Arenaria rubra marina), of which, 

 together with Cochlearia, Armeria, and grass, the Gulls' nests 

 are chiefly built. There is a deep rift or chasm which nearly 

 separates one part of this island from the rest ; the bottom lies 

 very cold and shaded and into this Seals are said to come. The 

 Bardsey men have told me that in cold weather about Christmas, 

 when they are crossing, they hear the Seals making a great 

 noise round the islands, " crying like children." When we were 

 going out in the morning, and standing out rather to the west 

 of the islands, a Storm Petrel passed us flying towards the 

 land. I was again assured that a man quarrying stone on the 

 shores of the bay uncovered a small black bird sitting on one 

 white egg. 



I found a good many Puffins breeding all along the mainland, 



