Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/482

412 in the wooded belt near the Straits, but along the hedges, and on gorse-covered hill-sides and commons.

Pheasants are hand-reared in many places, and the Partridge, owing to preservation, is not uncommon. The Landrail we found exceedingly abundant; in May and June birds were incessantly craking in almost every field. Both Coots and Moorhens were nesting in some numbers in the llyns near Beaumaris, and the latter on brooks and small ponds in many places. The Coot was specially abundant on Llyn Bodgolched, a fair-sized pool, much choked with rushes and buckbean. Here were also a pair of Redshanks, several Mallards, and a few Reed-Buntings. The last-named bird appears to be very local in Eastern Anglesea.

The nature of the country in the southern part of the district is very different from the high land on the north-east coast. Here the Rivers Cefni and Braint enter Carnarvon Bay after they have flowed through low-lying marshy valleys separated by a low ridge of cultivated land which terminates in Newborough Warren, a great waste of sand-hills extending two miles back from the shore, and with a sea-frontage of nearly four miles. From just below Llangefni to Maldraeth Yard, a distance of some five miles, the Cefni flows between artificial banks which prevent the valley from being inundated by the tide. The reclaimed land is, however, in many places impassable swamp, while even the best pastures are thickly grown with rushes. The lush meadows are divided by deep muddy ditches, and in places by dense untrimmed whitethorn hedges, which, when we visited the marshes, were full of noisy Whitethroats.

On May 21st the hedgerows and the beds of rank herbage in swampy places were ringing with the songs of Sedge-Warblers. We had not noticed this bird in the wooded country between Beaumaris and Llanidan, and it was by no means common elsewhere. At noon, in bright sunshine, a Grasshopper-Warbler was reeling from the top of a low thorn-hedge; it allowed us to approach within a few yards, and we were able to see that during the snatches of song its widely gaping mandibles were never closed. When the bird flitted along the hedge its rounded tail was very noticeable. When we passed the spot some three hours later the bird was still singing. Like the Sedge-Warbler,