628 MR. J. H. GURNEY ON BIRDS OF THE PEMBROKESHIRE I8LANDS. 
With three friends I was able to land on the two first named 
islands, and sail round the third, at the end of June (June 26 
— July 3) 1903, and a memorable opportunity it was. The 
map will show, better than any explanation, the position of the 
islands, and also the bold promontory known as St. David’s Head, 
where the Grey Seal may be seen playing beneath the cliffs, and 
Buzzards and Kestrels breed and a Rock Dove or two, and hard by 
the Grasshopper Warbler was still in full song. 
On none of these Welsh islands are Razorbills nearly so plentiful 
as Puffins and Guillemots. It is the same at every breeding 
station bound the British Isles, and there can be no doubt 
that not only with us, but throughout the whole of Europe, the 
Razorbill is numerically less abundant than the Guillemot. 
Dr. Bryant says the same of it at the stations in the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, N. A. 
Choughs seem to have become very scarce in Wales, and we 
thought ourselves lucky in meeting with one family party of 
seven on Ramsey island. Their curved beaks serve to distinguish 
them from the Jackdaw, as well as their longer wings at some 
distance. A pair or two may still frequent St. David’s Head, but 
the Jackdaws have supplanted them and taken many of their 
nesting places, they being the stronger species. Something is no 
doubt also due to the rapacity of certain egg dealers ; but if the 
Jackdaws could be killed down, the Choughs would increase again, 
for there can hardly be any doubt that it is by them they have 
been driven out. I tried to gather some traditions of their having 
formerly inhabited the ruins of the Bishop’s Palace at St. David’s; 
but if they ever did so, it must have been very long ago. 
Skomer Island. 
Skomer, derived from a Dauish word meaning rocky, an epithet 
it well deserves, is an island of some 700 acres on the south of 
St. Bride’s bay, the property of Lord Kensington, who has a keeper 
upon it employed in breeding chickens, and to whose agent, Mr. 
Fergusson, application should be made for permission to land. An 
account of its geology is given in the Transactions of the Cardiff 
Naturalists’ Society (vol. xxviii. p. 55, xxix. p. 62), and it appears 
to ,be of considerable interest from this point of view ; but 
