222 Wild Life in Wales 



taken in that way, while against the guns of the keepers 

 they could probably also hold their own, but the insidious 

 poisoned bait is beyond the highest intelligence yet 

 developed amongst birds, and before that the race is 

 gradually disappearing. 



With a view to obtaining accurate data upon the food of 

 the Raven, I took the trouble to examine closely a consider- 

 able number of the pellets, by which these birds, like their 

 relatives, get rid of the indigestible portions of their food. 

 These were picked up, from time to time, beneath roosting, 

 or nesting places, and besides showing how little comes 

 amiss to such birds as food, and the manner in which it 

 varies with the season of the year, give some indication of 

 the distances that are daily travelled for it. The sea is 

 roughly about twenty miles from Llanuwchllyn, yet at all 

 seasons some pellets showed traces of food obtained on the 

 shore. Of this, fragments of the shells of mussels, and 

 crabs, were the most frequent, with occasional bits of clam, 

 and other shell-fish. Bones of fish, bits of sea-weed, etc., 

 also commonly occurred, as well as round, water-worn 

 pebbles, that were no doubt from the sea-beach. More 

 frequently, however, any stones found in the pellets con- 

 sisted of bits of glassy quartz, such as might be picked up 

 about the mountain tops. These must either be swallowed 

 inadvertently, sticking to other food, or (as I think more 

 probable) from the same curiosity as prompts a tame bird to 

 steal any glittering object. Grass, leaves of trees, and 

 similar vegetable matter are, no doubt, taken adhering to 

 other food. In summer, skulls of voles, mice, and rats, 

 were very numerous, particularly the first named, these 

 animals being no doubt captured upon the hills. Moles, 

 too, were frequent, about equally so throughout the year, 

 many of them, also, doubtless the result of independent 

 capture, though others, perhaps, may have been killed in 

 traps and flung aside. Fur and bones of rabbits were fairly 

 numerous at all seasons, as was also the wool of sheep, 

 and sometimes the hair of cattle and dogs ; but what inter- 

 ested me most was the infrequency with which egg-shells, 

 feathers, or other remains of birds, occurred. Of egg-shells 



