146 Wild Life in Wales 



and rather suggests that, not being acquainted with a real 

 eagle, he had represented a bird with whose appearance he 

 was more familiar. When differentiated (which is probably 

 not often by the ordinary Welshman) the name given to the 

 Hen Harrier is Y Bod tinwyn, or white-tailed Kite ; but this 

 is said to be only a modern substitute for a more ancient 

 one, Bod glas^ or Bod llwydlas, blue or grey-blue Kite. 



Upon these moors, one day in June, I saw what I believe 

 was a Kite ; but it sailed away, high in the air, in the 

 direction of Pale, and was never near enough to make 

 identification easy. This part of Wales is outside the 

 present range of this species, and it is very rarely that a 

 straggler is ever seen here. One was said to have visited 

 Lake Vyrnwy two or three years ago, and another to have 

 been seen nearer Dinas. Barcud is the Welsh name which 

 properly belongs to the Kite, and many place-names, like 

 Nant-y-Barcud, Coed-y-Barcud, and so forth, seem sugges- 

 tive of former breeding stations ; but, locally at any rate, 

 Barcud is now so commonly applied to the Buzzard that 

 they more probably refer only to that bird. Other names 

 given to the Kite are Bod, Boda, Barcutan papur, and Bert. 

 There is a Rhyd-y-bod in Cwm Cynllwyd. 



The Golden Eagle has for long been extinct, as a 

 breeding species in the British Isles, anywhere south of the 

 Highlands of Scotland ; but in the time of Willughby, who 

 died in 1672, it was reported still to breed annually upon 

 the high rocks of Snowdon. 1 I was informed that there is 

 still a tradition extant that it also formerly nested on Cader 

 Idris ; and that the falcon, who now makes use of the site, 

 holds only temporary possession, pending the return of the 

 royal bird. When the rightful owner comes back she will 

 quietly relinquish the eyrie, but meanwhile she keeps it free 

 from all other intruders. The names borne by crags, in 

 several other places, are also suggestive of former occupation 

 by Eagles. One of these has already been referred to : 

 near Bwlch-y-gros there is a rock known as Tap-nyth-y- 

 Eryr, or " The nest of the Eagle." It was on the moor in 

 that neighbourhood that a White-tailed Eagle was killed in 

 1 See YarrelFs British Birds> 4th ed., vol. i. p. 12. 



