The Birds of Pembrokeshire. SX 
and extensive woodlands, yet from their being situated chiefly in deep 
valleys, these seldom catch the eye until they are closely approached, 
and so do not take away from the universal treeless appearance of 
the landscape. And when they are entered they will be found to 
contain no lofty forest trees ; there are none in the county, except at 
Picton Castle, where in the grounds there is some fine timber ; the 
Pembrokeshire trees in general are of no height or size, and are chiefly 
the ash, oak, sycamore, alder, and beech. The elm is very rare, 
especially in the north of the county; plantations of larch, spruce, 
and hazel thrive, and grow rapidly ; the soil of the county is excel- 
lently suited to the rhododendron that affords a favourite cover to 
pheasants and woodcocks, and attains, as at Trecwn, a gigantic size 
in its lofty and wide-circling clumps. Hedges and hedgerow timber, 
are almost entirely absent; the fields are fenced by banks con- 
structed of stones and turfs, which afford but slight restraint to the 
active little black cattle, that leap them at will like deer, and are 
commonly to be encountered straying far from their pastures. In 
many places lofty masses of trap rock crop out from the ground, 
rising up like islands ; some of these are castellated, others are of 
grotesque shape, such as the well-known “Lion” rock at Treffgarne, 
that resembles a couchant lion, a conspicuous object at a great 
distance, and visible from almost every part of the county, like Roch 
Castle, a ruin standing on a rocky eminence about a mile inland 
from St. Bride’s Bay, that also forms a point not to be avoided in 
the landscape. Many of these isolated rocks afford nesting sites to 
Buzzards, White Owls, Kestrels, Jackdaws, and Starlings. Although 
we were, on the whole, much disappointed with the Ornis of the 
county; its native birds being but few in number, and only one or 
two of the species abundant ; and its visitors—considering the great 
extent of its diversified coast, that trends so far into the sea 
towards the south and south-west that it might well be expected to 
attract passing birds—being but few and scanty ; yet, from our experi- 
ence, we found it a delightful county to reside in; its people, in 
every class, are most friendly and hospitable ; and the sport, in its 
bright and rapid trout-streams, on its furze-clad ‘ mountains,” and 
in its swampy covers, quite sufficient to give pleasure and content- 
