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THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



ately long legs, The colour of the back and wings is reddish-brown, very 

 prettily mottled. The throat and breast are grey, speckled with brown, 

 whilst below this is a strongly marked dark patch. Diptera were scarce, 

 but we took two or three specimens flying about the sand and rushes. 



May 16. — We walked about two miles along the top of the cliff, and then 

 went down to the shore, where we spent the whole day prawning. The pools 

 here are more overgrown with seaweed than those in the rocks near to West- 

 ward Ho, and perhaps for this reason there are usually more prawns in them. 

 Most of those we caught on this occasion were, however, very small. We 

 saw two or three flocks of Oyster Catchers on the rocks during the day and 

 some Curlews. 



May 18.— Spent the day prawning. While we were thus occupied, a 

 Guillemot was washed up on the rocks near us. It was not quite dead when 

 we picked it up, but was evidently dying, and only survived a few min- 

 utes ; its plumage was very good, and it bore no external marks of injury. 

 Perhaps some little description of the rocks, on which we spent so much of 

 our time, would not be out of place here. They appear to be of a slaty for- 

 mation, and as the strata of which they are composed are perpendicular, in- 

 stead of horizontal as in ordinary cases, they are extremely rough, jagged, 

 and irregular. Moreover, as the lines of the strata run at right angles to the 

 coast line, the action of the sea has worn in them a great number of deep 

 gullies, up which the water rises very quickly, when the tide is coming in. 

 And inasmuch as these gullies are not always straight, but occasionally inter- 

 sect one another, some care is necessary on the part of any one who objects 

 to being cut off by the tide. There is a large extent of rock left exposed at 

 low tide, in which are numberless pools, full of seaweed, anemones, and shell- 

 fish. Blennies also are verv common in them. There seemed to be 

 several species of sea-anemones, but knowing nothing about them, the only 

 one we have since been able to identify is the common Actinia mesembryan- 

 tkemum. A yellow kind is also very plentiful, which so closely resembles one 

 the common seaweeds, both in colour and manner of growth, as to make it 

 difficult to distinguish between them. This resemblance is no doubt of use 

 to the anemone in two ways, as besides serving to conceal them from their 

 enemies, it also helps to attract their prey. A large red anemone, not so 

 common as those just mentioned, makes use of another device for conceal- 

 ment, that of covering itself outside with small pieces of broken shells and 

 grains of sand. Besides these we found a green anemone, and a species 

 striped outside with red and green, but this last seemed rare. 



May 19. — Very wet, but in spite of the rain we were out on the rocks 



