144 BIRD LIFE IN WILD WALES 



were en evidence ; but we did not stop here long, but 

 continued our route to a bracken stack made on the 

 edge of a largish tract of marshy ground. Here we 

 hoped to find a Snipe's nest, but we were not in luck, 

 though we certainly flushed one bird of this species ; 

 and there may have been a sitting bird somewhere to 

 hand ; but unless one almost treads on a brooding 

 Snipe it is a hundred to one against finding the nest. 

 Continuing along the moor, we followed the course 

 of a rough stone wall, where a pair of Wheatears 

 evinced considerable anxiety, and no doubt they had 

 a nest of young close by ; but to find it we should 

 have been obliged to pull many yards of wall down. 

 We also flushed another Snipe, but again were un- 

 successful in our endeavours to find its home. Both 

 the above-mentioned Snipe got up several yards in 

 front of us, and so we knew that they had not risen 

 from their eggs, for this species "sits" till almost 

 trodden on. In this last bog we dropped across four 

 young Peewits just hatched — funny little fellows. 



We returned by the Black Bog and heard a Snipe 

 " bleating " there. This bog is a very treacherous 

 and deep one ; it has small islands scattered about 

 on it, but these are next to impossible to reach. A 

 few years ago a pair of Teal bred here, but were, I 

 believe, disturbed, and so never brought a brood off. 

 The Blackcap's nest which I found a few days back 

 now contains four eggs of the ordinary type. The 

 Willow Wrens which I noticed building at the end 

 of last month have seven eggs. 



May I'i^th. — I punted myself across the river and 

 made straight for a large larch plantation on the E. 



