WITH THE BIRDS IN WALES 211 



bracken and enjoyed the singing of several Wood- 

 larks. What extremely sweet notes they have ! 

 This bird is easily distinguished by its flight alone 

 from the commoner Skylark, for it has rather a squat 

 body and short tail, and I always think, though 

 perhaps the resemblance is fanciful, is like a bat 

 when on the wing. At close quarters the very defined 

 whitish streak above the eye characterises it directly, 

 besides which its call-note and song are very different 

 to those of the ordinary lark. 



June \^th. I am glad to see that the mud shell of 

 the Martin's nest which the Sparrows usurped, has 

 fallen down. I wonder if the former mean to make 

 another attempt under my eaves. Visited the Grass- 

 hopper Warbler's haunt once more, but our search 

 only revealed a Linnet's nest in a gorse-bush from 

 which the young had flown. Visited the Fern Owl's 

 abode on. the G. rocks and flushed two couple, but I 

 could find no traces of eggs. Yesterday I visited the 

 young Cuckoo, and found that it had turned out all 

 three eggs as well as the young Pipit, which lay dead 

 outside the nest. 



June I5//2. Walking along the metals in the morn- 

 ing I watched a Shrike for some time, but failed to 

 find his sitting mate. It rained continuously, and 

 was a good deal wetter in covert than out of it, for 

 I went through some thick scrub, where in a wild 

 rose-bush I found a Garden Warbler's nest with 

 young. This Warbler, I may say, has, I think, only 

 been recorded as" nesting in two of the Welsh counties 

 Breconshire and Pembrokeshire ; but here is yet 

 another Radnorshire. I think, however, that it is 



