CHAPTER XXII 



Llangowr Yew trees Animals poisoned by yew Stock Doves Golden- 

 crested Wrens Some other warblers Lime Calcium Ring Ouzels- 

 Pipits Butterflies. 



ONE morning in early June I walked down the side of the 

 lake to Llangowr, and afterwards climbed the rocky gorge 

 by which the Gower here debouches from the mountain. 

 About a mile above its estuary the stream bifurcates, and I 

 followed the branch up past Rhyd-y-Wen to its source, 

 afterwards walking along the watershed and returning by 

 the other arm and the wood below Tynycfn. Llangowr is 

 the church of Gwawr, the mother of Llywarch Hen, the 

 warrior bard who is said to have been a member of the 

 court of King Arthur, and to whom reference has already 

 been made. There is a very fine ancient yew-tree in the 

 churchyard, that measures more than twenty feet in 

 circumference near the base of its trunk, and carries a 

 wide and symmetrical head. The trunk is partly hollow, 

 and is said once upon a time to have harboured a spirit. 

 At the present day it is sometimes made use of by a White 

 Owl as a nesting site. 



To-day, Greenfinches were busily engaged in feeding 

 upon its scarlet fruit, showing that, though they are 

 readily enough eaten by Thrushes and other birds, they 

 had not been greatly appreciated, or that the supply had 

 been in excess of the demand. These finches eat only 

 the pulp, and reject the " stone." Thrushes, on the other 

 hand, swallow the whole fruit, and afterwards pass the 

 stone without ill effect. Pheasants have often been re- 

 ported to have been poisoned by eating the berry, it being 

 believed that it is the seed and not the pulp that accounts 

 for their deaths. In most cases of this kind, however, 



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