Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/31

Rh by a resolute and reliable watcher, never out of sight of the nest night or day. A clean sweep had also been made of the Buzzards' eggs, and it is probable that a dozen pairs did not succeed collectively in bringing off more than three or four young.

Egg-collecting, and not the persecution of the gamekeeper, will be eventually responsible for the extinction of both the Kite and Buzzard in Central Wales.

Mr. Grubb tells me that he found the Pied Flycatcher extremely scarce, in marked contrast to its abundance the previous year.

The following notes contain a summary of the information obtained in response to a printed circular asking for details as to the occurrence or otherwise of certain species whose distribution in Wales appears to be imperfectly known.

With regard to the Lesser Whitethroat, Capt. Swainson amplifies the account which he has given of this species in Breconshire in 'The Zoologist' for 1891, p. 356. He writes of it as being not uncommon at Brecon, and sparingly distributed over all the lowlands of the county. It occurs westward up to the point where the Mynydd Epynt hills begin to rise. "The most westerly point at which I have ever heard it is Llanwrtyd."

As far as my own experience goes, the Lesser Whitethroat is entirely wanting in Cardiganshire. In Montgomeryshire I heard it at Welshpool on May 26th, 1900. Mr. G.H. Caton-Haigh has only one doubtful record of it in Merionethshire. Mr. O.V. Aplin failed to identify it in the Lleyn peninsula of Carnarvonshire, but states that Mr. Coward observed a pair breeding at Abersoch in May, 1893 (Zool. Nov. 1900, p. 492).

It may be said then that the Lesser Whitethroat ranges, upon the eastern side, up to the foot of the chain of elevated moors and sheep-walks which forms the backbone of the Principality, but seldom or never crosses these treeless uplands, and is consequently absent from Western Wales. To this statement Mr. Coward's observation appears to furnish the sole exception.

None of my correspondents have any knowledge of the Tree Sparrow in Wales. Capt. Swainson says, "I have never been able to find it, although I have always been on the look-out."

Another species to whose distribution a special interest attaches is the Twite. As regards Breconshire, Capt. Swainson