A BOTANICAL TOUR THROUGH SOUTH WALES, &C. 2ft ? 



at length approaching almost directly towards where I stood, when, seeing me 

 it abruptly turned, and became silent, but not till after I had repeatedly wit- 

 nessed the utterance of its loud song during flight. This species appears to be 

 rapidly increasing in all parts of Britain. I may further remark, that the above 

 mentioned individual was taking a very long flight, to judge from the distant 

 sound of its notes when I first heard them. 



I have also noticed, lately, two Blackcap Fauvets darting upwards into the 

 air after insects, in precisely the manner of the Garden Fauvet, as detailed in 

 your British Song Birds. This habit is by no means usual in the Fauvet 

 genus. 



I shall conclude these remarks by observing, that I am informed of several lo- 

 calities where the Stock-Pigeon breeds rather plentifully, resorting to what are 

 called " stocks " for this purpose ; in other words, to stunted leafy pollards, or 

 wild trunks, which it appears, where it has the choice, to prefer to any other 

 situation to build in. I have also known it, in two instances, select the hole of 

 an aged Ash-tree, but my own experience of this species is rather limited. It is 

 not a little curious to observe the variety of meanings which are attached to the 

 word " stock," or " stocks ;" the idea of " placing in," or " being placed in " them 

 is not more opposed than are the senses in which it is used by persons engaged in 

 rural occupations and pursuits ; by the gardener, the agriculturist, and the grazier ; 

 the first of whom employs it in at least three distinct significations, independently 

 of those alluded to in the latter instances ; besides all which, when we speak of 

 the original " stock " from whence aught is derived, we intend the word in still 

 another sense, and have erroneously supposed this to have been the meaning in 

 which it is applied to the species of wild Pigeon, the propriety of so designating 

 which has, therefore, been called in question. 

 North Brixton, Surrey, 

 May 11, 1837. 



A BOTANICAL TOUR IN HEREFORDSHIRE, MONMOUTHSHIRE, 

 AND SOUTH WALES. 



WITH INCIDENTAL NOTICES OF THE SCENERY, ANTIQUITIES, &C 



By Edwin Lees, F. L. S., M. E. S. L. 



(Continued from p. 259.) 

 We now took the nearest route to the Porth-yr-ogof, the cavern where the 

 river Mellte works for itself a sinuous passage through the limestone rock, amidst 

 the deepest gloom, for a space of about seven hundred yards, before it again 



2 r2 



