Coch-y-Bonddu 243 



Merionethshire were in the rich tawny phase of plumage ; 

 but whether or not this indicates that that form predominates 

 over the brown one, in this part of Wales, it would not be 

 safe to say, as not more than perhaps about a dozen in all 

 were closely inspected. 



Near Drws-y-nant, one of these owls had her nest in 

 a cleft in a rock, in a wood ; another, near Gwernhefn, was 

 on the ground, at the foot of a tree, on the side of a steep 

 gully ; but the most common site here, as in most other 

 places, is in a hollow tree, or in the old nest of a Crow, 

 or Magpie. I have also seen the eggs in a Squirrel's drey, 

 reposing on a warm bed of thick moss, as well as in a 

 Rabbit hole, on nearly level ground, in a wood. In some 

 pellets examined, near the Drws-y-nant nest, the remains 

 of Cockchafers, and the Braken Clock, were very numerous, 

 both these beetles being very abundant there. The latter, 

 especially, I never saw in such swarms anywhere else. 

 Scientifically it is the Phyllopertha horticola, but is best known 

 as the " Coch-a-bonddu " of anglers, a name so variously 

 rendered that it may be worth while explaining that it is 

 properly Coch-a-pen-ddu, or " red with black head " ; the 

 very common name of Coch-a-bonddu (properly Y-coch bonddu\ 

 and often misspelt Coch-y-bondhu, signifying " the red one 

 with the black body," being quite a wrong description of 

 the insect. At Tan-y-bwlch there was a nest of the Tawny 

 Owl in the hay-loft over a cow byre standing on the side 

 of the hill, a long way from any except straggling small 

 trees. The owl had not begun to sit, when the hay was 

 removed in the beginning of May ; and the eggs, bereft of 

 their shelter, were then deserted. The entrance had been 

 through the slit for air in the gable of the building. I heard 

 of another nest on a hay-stack, under a wooden shed, at 

 another farm without trees near it ; but I did not see it, and 

 it may have belonged to a White Owl, which much more 

 often nests in such places. 



If an Owl suspects danger, she will not hesitate to remove 

 her young ones from the nest, and carry them to a place of 

 greater safety ; and should the young be more than half- 

 grown at the time of the exodus, they are, as often as not, 



