The Birds of Pembrokeshire. xliii. 
and wide over the adjacent seas, and many of them have wandered 
into far lower latitudes. Of the whole number very few indeed 
remain stationary ; our own home-bred birds have left us by the 
winter for the south, and have been replaced by strangers coming in 
from the north, until the spring calls these last back to their 
northern breeding grounds, and our own birds return to the familiar 
spots in which they have been reared. Out of all the residents, 
perhaps, the Dipper, the Pheasant, and the Partridge may be cited 
as the only stay-at-homes. 
Since the commencement of the present century the county has 
lost the Marsh Harrier, the Kite, and the Black Guillemot from its 
list of Resident Birds, and has acquired the Starling, previously 
only a winter visitor, and the Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus 
torquatus), that appears to have been introduced about seventy 
yearsago. The Mistle-thrush is rare in the winter, most of the birds 
leaving us in the early autumn. Some of the Conirostres, or seed- 
eating small birds, are fewer in number than they are in general in 
England ; the House-sparrow is scarce in most parts of the county, 
and in some places in the north is seldom seem. The Linnet, 
Goldfinch, and Yellow-hammer are numerous, as are also the 
Chaffinch and Greenfinch. The Sky-lark is not abundant any- 
where, and the Wood-lark is rare and local, and seems to be 
disappearing. The Hen Harrier, we think, annually decreases in 
numbers ; so, too, does the Chough, which used to be an abundant 
species on the coast, and the diminution in its numbers is not to be 
entirely explained by persecution. Although not so common as it 
was in bye-gone years, the Buzzard still fairly holds its own ; a corres- 
pondent has informed us that as recently as in the month of April in 
the present year (1894), in a walk from Solva to St. David’s Head, 
along some seven or eight miles of the cliff, he encountered five pairs 
of this fine bird. A pair or two of Merlins nest in the wilder parts of 
the county, and the bird is not uncommon as a winter visitor. The 
Red Grouse may still exist on the Precelly Mountains, but in very 
reduced numbers, and for want of preservation is in danger of 
becoming lost; on the same mountains it is probable that a few 
Golden Plovers and Dunlins breed, as there are places very suitable 
for them, and they are known to nest at no great distance in the 
