CHAPTER II. 



THE PIED FLYCATCHER. 



THOSE ornithologists who aver that the dainty 

 Pied Flycatcher* is everywhere rare in our islands 

 can scarcely have visited it in its Welsh haunts. 

 Admittedly is the bird extremely local, and, taking 

 Britain as a whole, rare ; and yet in portions of the 

 Principality in the central portions particularly 

 it is, though confined to certain districts, a charac- 

 teristic and common species, being, probably, just 

 there even more numerous than the well-known 

 Spotted Flycatcher is anywhere. 



Brecon, Eadnor, Carmarthen, Cardigan, Car- 

 narvon, Denbigh, and Merioneth are the great 

 strongholds of the Pied Flycatcher, wherein its chief 

 haunts embrace scenery romantic as it is wild, 

 since the bird delights in making its summer- 

 quarters in the well- wooded " cwms," even to 

 those penetrating the heart of the hills ; it is in 

 reality a creature of savage country, or at least one 

 of country dubiously cultivated ; it does not revel 

 at all in the homely spots so attractive to its 

 cousin, the Spotted Flycatcher: for although many 

 pairs frequent cultivated districts in Wales, it must 



* Muscicapa hypoleuca (Pall. ) 



