88 BIRD LIFE IN WILD WALES 



the very early spring and a bad food supply had 

 interfered with the bird's capacity for laying. I was 

 not very surprised at this, because on Friday the 

 Raven left her nest as if she were " setting,'' and I 

 remember remarking on it at the time. Meanwhile 

 the keeper was fishing in the river close at hand, but 

 he only succeeded in catching two small trout not 

 worth keeping. Just before starting home we saw a 

 fine, as well as an exceptional sight — a pair of Buzzards, 

 a Raven, and a Kite in the air together. The Ravens, 

 I may say, were not greatly agitated at our proceed- 

 ings. One — I expect the hen — came back once, but 

 speedily decamped. On the way home we fell in 

 with the L. shepherd. He told us that there was 

 a fox or two about the L. rocks ; his children saw 

 one a few mornings back. We saw another Raven 

 at D., and Pike photographed the ancient haunt of 

 the Kite there. Close to the river we heard the 

 noisy cry of the Yaffle, and above the slopes of 

 A. wood we saw a Kestrel and a Buzzard. 



MarcJi I'^th. — Left the inn about half-past nine 

 and started up the T, valley in quest of the Raven's 

 nest there. The cock, or presumably the cock, was 

 sitting on a crag above last year's nest, and the other 

 did not appear for some time. After examining the 

 old nest and finding no further advancement, we pro- 

 ceeded along the rocks, keeping rather low down, and 

 soon simply walked on to the nest, built on a ridi- 

 culously easy rock behind a little mountain-ash. 

 Never have I seen a Raven's nest in such an easily 

 accessible place. This nest, lined copiously with 

 sheep's wool, contained but one light-coloured Q^'g 



