LLANDDWYN 37 



Robin of Llanddwyn. They have no Robins there, 

 but when in the early morning you look out through 

 the wire netting that serves to keep the rats out of 

 your bedroom (for we were " fearfully attended"), 

 you may find the Wheatear perching on the railing 

 surrounding the tiny garden patch, hopping up and 

 down, inside or out, and not greatly disturbed when 

 you lift the latch. Were the Robin here, he would 

 chase out the Wheatear, and it would keep to the 

 warren as its natural haunt; but in the absence of 

 the Robin, the Wheatear haunts the cottages con- 

 tinually, evincing here greater familiarity than is 

 usual with this bird. 



At home, at Stretford, on the Mersey, we have 

 the Wheatear only as a bird of passage in the spring 

 and autumn, and although they pass in some hund- 

 reds during April and May, and again during 

 August and September, they never sing. Indeed, 

 they rarely * chack.' The same may be said of the 

 Redstart, which passes in small numbers. Their kins- 

 man, the Whinchat, however, arrives singing; but he 

 stays to nest. Gilbert White has said that while 

 there is breeding there will be song ; he might have 

 added, perhaps, that there would be singing only 

 where there was breeding ; for the birds that come to 

 us to nest come singing at once, but those that do 

 not nest with us, also do not sing while passing. It 

 will be understood that this remark applies only to 

 the time of nesting. 



In that same garden patch where the Wheatears 

 used to come, there grew a Falkland Islands 

 Speedwell ( Veronica decussata), at that time loaded 

 with clusters of deep-purple flowers. The pilot's 



