1 82 Wild Life in Wales 



partial to such artificial structures, but always prefer a 

 natural bank. A yet more unexpected site for a Ring 

 Ouzel's nest was on the turf wall in the inside of a shoot- 

 ing hut, far out on the moor. The eggs in this nest would 

 certainly have been set down as Blackbirds' had the bird not 

 been sitting upon them when found, and made haste to 

 escape by the open entrance to the hut as we entered it. 

 They were of the common dull Blackbird type, freckled 

 rather than spotted with numerous small dots, and quite 

 without the rich brown blotches, and intervening patches 

 of bluey-green ground colour, that usually characterise 

 Ring Ouzels' eggs. Otherwise, the Ouzels' eggs seen 

 in Wales were generally of normal type, some of them 

 being very pretty and well-marked specimens. One nest 

 was characteristically interwoven with a good deal of that 

 true moor-land plant, the " Stag's-horn moss," Lycopodium 

 clavalum. 



Tree Pipits ascend the valleys as far as trees or bushes 

 go, after which they are replaced by the true Moor Pipit 

 (Anthus pratensis). On the lower ground the two species 

 are freely intermingled, A. trivialis being, generally, most 

 numerous. In the eggs of the latter, my experience, both 

 here and in other places, has been that in open situations 

 the red type prevailed, while in woodland nests the 

 streaked variety was more liable to be found. Probably 

 it is nothing more than a coincidence, but yet, perhaps, 

 worth recording for the benefit of anyone specially interested 

 in such matters. In this part of Wales, nests in open 

 situations, as on the railway sides, far outnumber those to 

 be found in woods ; and the streaked, or Black-cap type 

 of egg, was comparatively uncommon. 



Throughout the day, Painted-lady Butterflies were flitting 

 over the higher parts of the hills, never except singly, 

 though half a dozen might be in sight at the same time, 

 but all steadily pursuing one direction of the compass, viz. 

 due South. While we sat for half an hour on one hill-top, 

 I counted fifty-eight that passed us near enough to be 

 identified with certainty, and that may be taken as approxi- 

 mately the rate of numbers kept up during at least six or 



