WITH THE BIRDS IN WALES 151 



hawk's habitation, but only half built. This will be 

 a late brood, for down south most Sparrow-hawks 

 are beginning to "set"; but they all seem to be 

 later here. Eventually 1 got down to the river, 

 which I followed half-way to E., seeing many Sand- 

 pipers and a fair sprinkling of Grey and Pied Wag- 

 tails. Coming back by the road I saw a Wren's nest 

 built in the niche of an ivy-covered rock which con- 

 tained two eggs. Just here, too, a Grey Wagtail 

 seemed somewhat upset, for he kept flying from the 

 road, where he was running about, to a sycamore 

 hard by, uttering his alarm note the while ; but I 

 could not find a nest. Getting to the river again, I 

 had a splendid view of a male Sparrow-hawk catching 

 a Sandpiper, which he bore off to the wood, where I 

 found the nest this morning. 



In a little orchard close by I found a Missel 

 Thrush's nest with two young just hatched and three 

 eggs on the point of hatching. The site was unusual, 

 for the nest was only just over three feet from the 

 ground in the cleft of an apple-tree ; whereas this 

 Thrush nearly always builds from fifteen to twenty 

 feet up, often more. The number of eggs was also 

 extrordinary, as I have never seen more than four 

 previous to this, whilst Charles Dixon, in his " Nests 

 and Eggs of British Birds," says that this number is 

 never exceeded, which again shows how unsafe it is 

 to generalise. I watched both birds return to the 

 nest, so there can be no doubt on the point, though 

 the only other nest it might have been was a 

 Blackbird's ; but then the unhatched eggs put this 

 out of the question apart from the view I obtained 



