Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/103

Rh grown and untenanted. The Common Buzzard, though the fate of the Kite inevitably awaits it, is still fairly numerous, and eleven pairs were found breeding within a radius of perhaps five miles from our headquarters. Two presumably young and inexperienced birds had built about twenty feet from the ground in a small sycamore, one of the few trees surrounding a ruined sheep-fold upon the open moor.

On April 30th newly-arrived Pied Flycatchers, all of them males, were singing amongst the birches. A pair of Ravens, in the Nant Brenig, had three fully-fledged young ones just ready to leave the nest. A pair of White Wagtails upon Borth golf-links on May 13th were evidently on passage. There were three or four Turnstones on the strand, and an Oystercatcher's nest contained four eggs; I have never previously found more than three. On the 16th many Wheatears at Clarach were still on migration. A Wood Wren's nest was almost entirely composed of fir-needles. A Whinchat, singing with strange unfamiliar variations, so that I at first took it to be a Sedge Warbler, recalled the suggestions which have lately been made as to the power of mimicry in this species.

On June 4th I visited a colony of Lesser Terns near Towyn, and found the birds in about their usual numbers. Walking over the moors from the Teifi Pools to Cwm Ystwyth, on June 8th, I met with one pair of Golden Plover and several Dunlin, which were evidently breeding. The note of the latter bird, in the nesting season, is like the shrill rattle of a pea-whistle. Capt. Cosens informed me that a pair of Turtle-Doves bred in his grounds at Bronpadarn. On June 20th I heard the Manx Shearwater's note about 11.30 p.m.

During a few days spent in Snowdonia at the end of June several pairs of Choughs were seen. In company with Ravens, they frequent the cliffs of Clogwyn du'r Arddu. In the Nant Francon a nest of young Ring-Ouzels in the loose stone wall by the roadside was most conspicuous. Revisiting the same neighbourhood three months later, I found the Wheatear and Ring-Ouzel, on Sept. 23rd, still lingering near the summit of Carnedd Llewelyn. Four Ravens frequented the Glyders. Stonechats were numerous at Pen-y-gwryd, where they came into the hotel garden. A pair of Buzzards, the only ones met with, were seen