Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/29

Rh weeks from May 19th in a remote part of the county. Only one Kite was observed, and the immemorial breeding haunt at Ystrad Ffin appeared to be deserted. At least eleven pairs of Buzzards were found to be nesting within a radius of some six miles from his headquarters, and instances in which the first-hatched and strongest nestling bullied the younger ones to death were again noted. In fact, this may be said to be a usual habit of Welsh Buzzards. Kestrels were tenanting a nest from which young Ravens had flown. Another Kestrel, having taken possession of a deserted Buzzard's nest, was sitting upon two Buzzard's eggs in addition to her own. A pair of Ravens in the Yrfon Valley had two young upon the wing. Pied Flycatchers were breeding freely, often in disused holes of the Green or Greater Spotted Woodpecker.

On August 30th, when ascending Cader Idris, I heard a Raven above Llyn-y-Cau. The Chiffchaff sang upon Sept. 16th and again upon Oct. 2nd, rather a late date. Redwings put in an appearance on Oct. 20th, and four days later a Thrush was coming into song again. An unusually large party of Longtailed Tits numbered twenty-five. On Nov. 22nd a Chough passed over my house at a good height. A Mistle-Thrush was singing at the close of the year.

The year 1901 opened with mild, bright weather. On Jan. 1st Wood-Pigeons were cooing. On the 3rd a Raven passed high overhead croaking angrily. A month later, snow inland brought a few Golden Plover to the neighbourhood of the coast. On March 9th I watched numerous Curlew, a party of thirty Shieldrakes, and three Wigeon upon the sand-banks of the Dovey. Visiting the Bird Rock near Towyn upon Easter Monday, I found that as yet only half-a-dozen Cormorants were to be seen upon the breeding ledges. Five or six pairs of Herons were nesting in tall larches at Peniarth, further down the valley. A Wood-Lark was singing in the Nant Berwyn on April 17th. On the 26th I heard the note of the Turtle-Dove at Wallog, a decidedly early date for the arrival of this migrant, which is a scarce and local visitant to Western Wales. A Tree-Creeper nested for the fourth year in succession in precisely the same spot, between an ivy-stem and the tree-trunk.

Visiting the Teifi Bog, near Tregaron, on May 25th, I found