100 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of the more interesting species.* From Point Lynas in the east 

 to the Skerries in the west there were Guillemots, and in lesser 

 numbers Eazorbills and Puffins, fishing, or flying westwards in 

 strings low over the water. Assuming that these were breeding 

 birds, they must have travelled considerable distances to their 

 feeding-grounds, for the nearest Puffin colonies are on Puffin 

 Island and the cliffs near the South Stack, eighteen and sixteen 

 miles away respectively. We saw many Manx Shearwaters. 

 The nearest known breeding-station of this species is fifty miles 

 off, on the coast of Lleyn. The Shearwaters often settled on the 

 water, and seemed to be as indifferent as the Auks to the 

 proximity of our boat as we sailed close past them. It is an easy 

 matter to distinguish the Shearwaters on the wing at a distance 

 from the Guillemot, Eazorbill, and Puffin, whose hurrying flight 

 is effected by continuous rapid wing-beats. The Shearwater 

 proceeds by a few rapid wing-beats succeeded by an interval of 

 sailing on rigid wings, and, if the sea be rough, it tilts its body 

 so as to show the black upper parts at one moment and its white 

 under surface at the next as it skims close over the crests of the 

 waves. We saw three Gannets fishing close inshore on different 

 days ; an adult and two immature birds in different phases of 

 plumage. 



A Chiffchaff — rare in North Anglesea — was singing in some 

 bushes on the cliff at Porth-y-Gwichiaid, south of Point Lynas, 

 and we heard another in the shade trees at Llaneilian rectory. 



A pair of Eavens, whose nest on a precipitous cliff had been 

 robbed in the early spring, had built another nest about a 

 hundred yards from the first, and had succeeded in getting off 

 their brood at the second venture. When we visited the place 

 the two old birds with three young ones were on the steep hill- 

 side above the cliff. One of the old Eavens — a ragged creature 

 compared with the young birds — flew to and fro along the cliff- 

 face; its throat-feathers stood out like quills, a character not 

 noticeable in the young. Herring-Gulls mobbed it, and a male 

 Merlin, one of a noisy pair which had young near at hand, dashed 

 at it several times, and once actually struck it, but provoked no 

 retaliation beyond a croak, which was the case, too, when a 

 Herring- Gull pursued the big cowardly bird too hotly. A pair of 

 * Cf. " Notes on the Birds of Anglesea " (Zool. 1904, pp. 7-29). 



