142 Wild Life in Wales 



of the game-preserver. On a grouse moor, in comparison 

 with this trio, all other " vermin " are of comparatively little 

 account. A Crow generally leaves some traces of his 

 depredations behind him ; but a Stoat will, unobserved, 

 steal every egg from a grouse nest, and removing them to 

 some safe place for discussion, completely hide the robbery. 

 Sometimes a large collection of egg-shells may be discovered 

 beneath a rock, or on the removal of the stones from some 

 cairn, or even in a peat stack, and the keeper recognises 

 but too well the handiwork of a Stoat. Of course it may 

 be captured, but so much harm has been already done. 

 Sometimes, too, the sitting hen is surprised, and killed upon 

 her nest. One day, while sitting on the side of the hill 

 overlooking Dallgym, or "the Blind Valley," the keeper 

 heard a Grouse cry out quite close to him, and on running 

 forward was just in time to see a Stoat making off. The 

 Grouse had been caught upon her nest, and sharply killed 

 by a bite at the nape of the neck, from which the blood was 

 flowing freely. 



There is a magnificent peep into the Dallgym valley 

 from the moor here, the hills rising almost precipitously, 

 all round, for several hundred feet. We look down from 

 the top of an almost self-buried little cliff into a natural 

 amphitheatre, at the bottom of which nestle one or two 

 farm houses, beside a brook which winds away to the woods 

 surrounding Sir Edmund Buckley's seat at Vachddeiliog. 

 On the lower slopes of the valley, a few trees are scattered 

 here and there with park-like effect, and there are the usual 

 little fields dotted about wherever a bit of ground has been 

 formed level enough, and clear enough of rock, to admit of 

 the land being ploughed. On some of the trees, Crows' 

 nests could be seen, and a Peregrine Falcon held possession 

 of all that remained of what must once have been an 

 imposing crag. It is now, however, only a precarious site 

 for an eyrie, the rock itself being of rather easy access, 

 though the heap of fallen stone, at its base, slopes away 

 so abruptly as to make it an arduous climb from the valley. 



A short way further on, the moor is intersected by 

 another deep valley, at the bottom of which runs the 



