THE yOUNG NATURALIST. 



75 



fact that their nest is annually robbed. On the occasion in question, after 

 the first clutch of eggs had been taken and sold, the birds recommenced 

 nidification, and a visitor at Tenby engaged the men to obtain the eggs for 

 him. The only means of reaching the nest is of course by suspending a 

 man part way down the precipice, and on this occasion, part of the payment 

 being unfortunately advanced, the men became so far intoxicated as to fasten 

 the rope insecurely, so that it gave way and the poor wretch was dashed 

 in pieces. 



Tenby is by far the most thoroughly worked up, though by no means the 

 richest, portion of the Pembrokeshire coast, and I have nothing new to say 

 about it. The cliffs along the front of the town are bright in the spring with 

 the blossoms of the wild cabbage, above the rocky slopes Lathyrus maritima 

 may occasionally be found, and also the very local moth Lithosia caniola. 

 Other slopes are completely covered with the large leaves of the introduced 

 plant Petasites fragrans, or perfumed in mid-winter by its flowers. The 

 samphire (Crithmum maritimum) fringes the chinks of the limestone rocks, 

 and the pretty Spergularia rubra hangs from the smaller cracks right up to 

 walls of the museum. These rocks are also frequented by a very local little 

 moth, Gelechia ocellatetta (a species quite different from instabilella and 

 plantagintlla), which feeds on leaves and shoots of Beta maritima. All over 

 these rocky places Helix pisana is abundant, of large size and very variable, 

 and it extends to the sandhills beyond the town. In other respects these 

 sandhills are singularly devoid of interest. Of the moths and beetles, usually 

 so plentiful in such places, hardly a specimen is to be found. I once found 

 a specimen of Nebria complanata, when opening tufts of Ammophila, in search 

 of moths ; and on another occasion met with the local and very minute 

 Machista collitella, skipping about the grass blades, but this species was not 

 again seen. In the level, wind-blown spaces between the sandhills, Euphor- 

 bia par alias is found, and in the adjacent marsh plenty of Myrica gale, Meni- 

 anthes trifoliata, and a great profusion of sedges. Sparga?iium simplex is in 

 the ditches, and Lastrcea thelypteris not quite exterminated in the wettest 

 places. Here also are moths of very local distribution, such as Nonagria 

 despecta and Peronea eomariana, and absurd as it may seem, this is the only 

 locality in Pembrokeshire in which I have found Caiaclysta lemnalis. Ancy- 

 lus lactistris occurs in some of the ditches, and the abundance of Limnaa 

 palustris and Physa hypnorum that may be seem moving about in the water 

 on a bright spring day is something extraordinary. 



Parallel with, but outside, this marsh and range of sandhills, is the famous 

 " shell beach," of which the glory has, I fear, departed. The action of the 

 tide appears to be silting up that part of the bay with sand, so much so that 



