CHAPTER XIV 



A mountain walk Moths Protective mimicry Roman remains King 

 Arthur Caer-gai Drumming of Snipe Effect of landslip A modern 

 moraine heap Weeping ashes Tall stones Thrushes and Blackbirds : 

 Food and songs of Frogs Newts Aquatic sheep Moths Butter- 

 flies Dragon-flies. 



April $th. Started with a companion for the top of 

 Arenig-fawr (2800 feet), on a beautifully fine morning, full 

 of "the song of the nodding grass and the bird in the 

 hedge." In passing through the valley, noted the reappear- 

 ance of Sand Martins, Wheatears, and Willow Wrens, and 

 the return of many other birds to their breeding quarters. 

 A Reed Bunting was singing in a rushy field, and a pair of 

 Pied Wagtails had resumed possession of the bit of old wall 

 that served them for a nursery last year. 



Above Pont Lliw, a Yellow-horned Moth (Cymatophora 

 flavicornis)) flying round a birch tree, in the full sun, was 

 busily engaged in depositing her ova. This she generally 

 did (as I have before noticed this species do), by resting for 

 a moment on the tips of the bare branchlets, and curling 

 her body round beneath her so as to leave a single egg on 

 the under side of the branch. The eggs were all distributed 

 in this way on separate parts of the tree, two seldom being 

 in very close proximity to one another ; but occasionally 

 they were laid on the upper surface of rather a thick branch ; 

 usually, but not always, near a bud, or at the junction of a 

 twig. After depositing perhaps twenty or thirty eggs on 

 this tree, she flew off, probably in search of others on which 

 to continue the operation. We see in this way how it is 

 that the caterpillars of this species are always found singly, 

 perhaps only one on a tree, and therefore come to be re- 

 garded as rather good finds. Although, from a very early 

 stage, they spin themselves up in a nest between two leaves, 



I have never experienced much difficulty in beating them 



96 



