Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/143

Rh I thought. I saw several on their nests in the cave; others I saw on their nests at Pen y Cîl.

—A pair has been known to breed on Careg ddu, and another on the mainland at the far end. One can never be certain of finding a particular nesting spot occupied in any particular year.

—I visited, in a boat, a small colony in Ogof urel (? uriel), at Pen y Cîl, on May 24th. The birds on the ledges were all facing the sea, and probably had not laid their eggs. A local name used here and on Bardsey is "Aron" or "Arron." It is probably onomatopœtic. I have never previously met with this curious name in use, although I believe I have seen it in print somewhere. However, I have searched in a great many books, old and new, without finding it.

Mr. Coward, to whom I am again indebted for the valuable notes he made, has given me particulars of the great breeding station of sea-birds on the Bird Rock near Nevin, which I have not yet visited. It is three or four hundred feet high. Near the top are Cormorants and a few Herring-Gulls; lower down, Guillemots and Razorbills in thousands, and below them again great numbers of Kittiwakes. Jackdaws, Carrion-Crows, and Rock-Pipits were among the other birds noticed. No Lesser Black-backed Gulls were seen, but a pair of Larus marinus haunted a small stack, which, however, held neither eggs nor young. As far as I am aware, the Lesser Black-backed Gull is rare in Lleyn, and I know of no instance of its breeding in the district. Mr. Coward saw one between Pwllheli and Llanbedrogg on June 3rd, 1887, and two on Llanbedrogg Head four days later. Herring-Gulls used to breed on the headland there, but the part of the cliff they bred on has since been quarried away. I have only very occasionally seen the Lesser Black-backed Gull in Lleyn in May and June.

The Lesser Whitethroat and Ray's Wagtail must be struck off the Lleyn list for the present. The inclusion of the former rests on the identification of a single egg found in a nest near Abersoch. Mr. Coward submitted the egg at the time to a high authority, who confirmed his identification of it. He has recently been kind enough to show the egg to me, and I believe it is only an abnormal egg of the Common Whitethroat. Neither Mr.