158 BIRD LIFE IN WILD WALES 



enced some difficulty in finding the nest again, which 

 was close to a ride (indeed, this Hawk, I have found, 

 evinces a great partiality for a path in its nesting 

 economy). The hen sat on till I shook the tree. 

 This nest contained five eggs, with nothing very 

 special about them except their size. I have 

 frequently noticed, and especially in the Hawk's eggs, 

 that the smaller the egg the richer the colouring. 

 The female, after being flushed, sat in a tree some 

 fifty yards off uttering a note not unlike the Kestrel's 

 alarm cry, but not so shrill or quickly iterated. 

 Occasionally she took short flights from tree to tree, 

 and was much displeased at my intrusion. 



May \6tk. Saw the first Butcher Bird that I have 

 seen this year, though surely it has reached these 

 parts ere this. I saw besides a good number of 

 Whinchats and Tree Pipits. Crossing the road, I 

 went down to look at the Missel Thrush's nest in the 

 orchard, and found to my regret that some ne'er-do- 

 weel had torn out the whole thing. The Pied Fly- 

 catchers have not been ousted by the Great Tits, as I 

 thought, and have, I see, begun to lay. Sat down on 

 the river bank for half an hour or so watching the 

 Sand-martins hawking for insects. I saw nothing of 

 the Kingfishers, but on resuming my stroll discovered 

 another pair of Pied Flycatchers frequenting some 

 oaks and alders by the stream. 



In the evening, whilst sauntering through the big 

 larch plantation above my house, I marked a Sparrow- 

 hawk's nest built on top of a squirrel's "drey." It 

 was in a very thin tree a mere stick and, as I had no 

 irons, difficult of access. It contained two perfectly 



