Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/231

Rh On Feb. 16th a Stonechat was coming into song, and on March 13th I heard the Wood Lark. A Dipper was sitting on five eggs, which on March 31st appeared to be within a day or two of hatching, under the archway of a stream between Cemmes Road and Llanbrynmair. At the same place a Chiffchaff was silently making its way down the valley from willow to willow, confirming my view that many of the migrants reach Cardiganshire by this route—that followed by the Cambrian Railway. In early April I found Buzzards numerous at Dinas Mawddwy. The snow had driven them down to the woods in the vicinity of the hotel. Only one pair of Ravens was seen; they were making over towards Lake Vyrnwy, the Liverpool reservoir, where they were reported to be nesting on the rocks above the lake. Both pairs of Ravens occupied their usual nesting sites upon the coast near Aberystwyth, and on April 28th I found a pair breeding at Craig y Pistyll; young ones could be heard in the nest. A pair of Choughs occupied their usual sea-cave near the Ravens.

On May 12th, a bitterly cold day, I found Curlews sitting upon three and four eggs respectively. On the 14th I noted a pair of Ravens breeding at the lower end of the Nant Berwyn, near Tregaron. They sailed out from the hill-side, coughing and growling till the rocks rang again. On the same day, at Nant y Stalwen, I saw five stalwart young Ravens, fully fledged, strung up against a barbed-wire fence, and on the following day I was offered two young ones which had been taken that morning from the nest at Pwll Uffern. On the 15th I saw a Kite go down the valley; it was sailing almost in Buzzard style, without much flapping. The birds had attempted to nest once more in their favourite tree, and fresh marks of climbing irons indicated that the eggs had been taken, making the fifth year in succession in which they have been obtained from this nest. A dealer visits the district regularly in quest of Kites' eggs, and the extinction of the birds can only be a matter of a year or two. A Tree Creeper's nest close by was lined with Kites' feathers. A Buzzard's nest contained two newly-hatched young, and an egg from which a third one had failed to extricate itself. By way of provision, the nest contained a half-eaten mole. I was told that in every brood of young Buzzards the strongest individual kills