178 Wild Life in Wales 



them at first a very little, mixed with other forage ; after- 

 wards they gradually augment the quantity, until at last 

 they can give them the leaves of the yew alone without 

 any danger." From this it would appear that the poison 

 is passed off, and is not of a cumulative nature. I may 

 just add that most cases of cattle being poisoned by eating 

 yew, that have come under my observation, have been in 

 spring or early summer. 



All the old churchyards hereabouts boast one or more 

 large yew trees, frequently many, as at Llan-y-cil, on the 

 opposite side of the lake, reminiscent, perhaps, of times 

 when Welsh archers were without rival in warfare, for 

 it was the Tw 9 as it is spelt in Cymric, that supplied 

 their bows. Many enactments were from time to time 

 made for the proper preservation and planting of the 

 tree, and it is doubtless to some of these that we are 

 indebted for some of the oldest yews now met with in 

 churchyards. 



Several pairs of Stock Doves (sometimes distinguished 

 from the wood-pigeon as Colomen hengoed) nest round about 

 Llangowr ; and in the wood above the rabbit warren a 

 Golden-crested Wren was watched carrying food to its 

 young in a nest skilfully stitched to the pendulous 

 branchlets of a silver fir. The twitter of young Gold- 

 crests must, surely, be one of the thinnest notes known. 

 Yet, quite inaudible though it was to my ears, unless 1 

 stood very close to the nest, it seemed to reach those of the 

 parent bird at the apparently impossible distances of five or 

 ten yards. The only note known to me at all comparable 

 to it in lack of volume is the lowest chirrup of a Shrew 

 in the grass, but even that is not pitched so high as a young 

 Golden-crested Wren's small voice. The Gold-crest is the 

 Dryw peneuryn, or Ereninog^ of the better informed Welsh- 

 man ; but by the ordinary inhabitant of those parts most 

 small birds are quite disregarded, and any distinguishing 

 names for them altogether unknown. Wood Wrens 

 (Telor-y-coed} and Willow Warblers (Dryw-yr-helyg) are 

 both numerous here ; and in the bramble tangles on the 

 railway side, and in similar places, the Garden Warbler 



