632 MR. J. H. GURNEY ON BIRDS OF THE PEMBROKESHIRE ISLANDS. 
some kind, and considered that something might be done by 
reckoning the birds according to their ledges. After two days 
on the island, I should guess that there might be, all told 
250 Guillemot occupied ledges on the island, tenanted say as 
follows : — 
2 
ledges of fifty Guillemots 
— 
100 
8 
„ forty 
= 
320 
16 
„ thirty 
= 
480 
40 
„ twenty 
= 
800 
90 
,, ten 
>> 
= 
900 
50 
„ five 
>> 
= 
250 
50 
,, three 
>> 
= 
150 
150 
,, two 
>> 
— 
300 
3,300 Guillemots. 
Add to 3,300, three hundred more for single Guillemots scattered 
about, and we get a total of 3,600. Some 400 Guillemots would 
probably also be on the wing or on the water, but near enough to 
be within sight, but all these belong to the ledges and have been 
reckoned as if they were on them. Probably again 400 more 
belonging to this settlement would be fishing in St. Bride’s Bay, 
or still further away, which would make, supposing they were all at 
home together, an assembled commonwealth of 4,000 Guillemots. 
There is no restriction as to taking eggs on Ramsey bejmnd the 
difficulty of getting them, and a good many are annually used for 
clarifying wine, feeding poultry, pigs, etc., and a few are eaten by 
the poorer inhabitants, but the yelk is coarse. We were told that 
about 1,000 had been recently taken and brought into St. David’s 
for the wine trade, all probably from this island. They seemed to 
be very richly coloured, and one was so abnormally small as to be 
only one third its proper size ; but we did not see this in situ , 
though my son obtained it in the yelk. 
Another thing we had come to observe was the direction in which 
these sea-birds face when on their ledges ; but this proved not 
so easy as I had anticipated. However, more often than not, 
Guillemots and Razorbills when incubating, sit face to cliff, i.e., 
with their backs to the sea. Certainly they prefer as a rule at 
Ramsey to have the wind at their backs ; but even to this there are 
