10 BIRD LIFE IN WILD WALES 



decaying, slimy moss. If you would take a nearer 

 inspection of his dank, foam-flecked home, get 

 cautiously on to yon boulder — go carefully, for the 

 rocks are treacherous, and a fall here means a drop 

 into the darkling waters of a pool near forty feet 

 deep. At last we are above the nest, still well out 

 of reach, however. Down on your stomach if you 

 would reach it ; lean cautiously over the slippery rock 

 which here slopes at a forbidding angle towards the ^y 

 sullen depths below ; with the left hand grasp that 

 clump of ferns, and now our right is within a few 

 inches of the nest, when " swish ! " off goes the hen 

 bird. Here, inside the mossy structure, on a further 

 nest composed of mountain grass and lined copiously 

 with dead leaves, chiefly birch, lie the four spotless 

 white eggs ; so possibly she has not finished her 

 clutch, or this species perhaps broods over its eggs, 

 before the set is completed, as is the case notoriousl)' 

 with the Jay and Bullfinch. 



A little higher up we light on the haunt of the 

 beautiful Grey Wagtail. How charming the male 

 looks, as midstream he sits on some boulder, the 

 black patch on his throat contrasting admirably with 

 his chrome-coloured breast and underparts ! But see, 

 with a warning " chiz-zit " he is off, probably to 

 apprise his more soberly clad but equally graceful 

 mate of our approach. Here, where the rocks almost 

 meet over the stream, the keeper tells us is a favourite 

 nesting haunt of theirs ; and there is last year's nest, 

 or we are much mistaken — a simple little structure 

 enough, built on a jutting ledge of lichen-bespangled 

 rock behind a sheltering tuft of herbage, composed 



