80 BIRD LIFE IN WILD WALES 



this valley we found a ledge where they had put a 

 few sticks together. We expected to find an eyrie in 

 the spot we were making for, but the nest was not in 

 the usual place — behind a tree on the cliffside. This 

 had been torn away by winter storms, but in a charm- 

 ing gorge, a mile lower down the valley, we did discover 

 a nest containing a brace of eggs. These eggs were 

 of the usual type — a greenish ground, mottled and 

 freckled with several shades of greenish brown and a 

 few specks of very dark sienna. We first found this 

 eyrie by seeing the cock bird on the rocks above it, 

 where he was no doubt acting sentinel. Shortly 

 after he left his watch-tower the hen flapped out 

 of the dingle uttering a hoarse croak or two in 

 her displeasure. We saw fifteen Buzzards to-day. 



March \^tJi. — About nine a.m. started for the T. 

 valley. Down a valley close here the keeper told us 

 that during past summers he had seen a big Hawk 

 which puzzled him considerably — most probably a 

 Hen Harrier we think. Skirting a wooded hill, we 

 eventually reached Y. farm, and leaving this on our 

 left, crossed the river by a very rickety bridge. The 

 keeper and Pike kept to the valley, but I scaled some 

 big rocks on the right, running parallel with the stream, 

 where from time to time a pair of Ravens have nested. 

 Whilst there I spied a Raven flapping across the valley 

 at a great altitude, making for some clifls on my right 

 front. Gaining these cliffs, I waited for the others to 

 come up, and whilst doing so had a splendid view of 

 a Fork-tailed Kite as he sailed across the valley. I 

 was looking down on his long, pointed wings and forked 

 tail, and could not but marvel at the eas)' wa\' in which 



