248 Wild Life in Wales 



westward to Dolgelly. Above the station is a large slate 

 quarry, extending nearly to the top of the hill ; and the 

 plaintive mewing of a Buzzard, soaring high above it, in the 

 early morning, seemed to tell of a habitation somewhere in 

 the immediate vicinity. Not unlikely the nest may have 

 been in the wood, for though the trees are not high, very 

 little sometimes contents a Buzzard in the way of security 

 for its treasures. On the opposite side of the valley, a pair 

 had built their nest in a low oak, not much over twenty 

 feet from the ground, quite near to the keeper's house, and 

 actually on the borders of his pheasant-rearing field. The 

 price of such misguided temerity was, of course, death ; the 

 female had been trapped at a rabbit below the nest, and the 

 male shot, while the two tiny young ones the nest contained 

 were taken, and hand-reared. Both did extremely well ; 

 and at the time of my visit, one, just able to fly, was very 

 tame in the keeper's orchard, associating with poultry, and 

 neither fearing, nor being feared by them. The other had 

 been given away. 



When a Buzzard builds herself a nest in a tree, as was 

 the case here, the structure is, externally, a very rough 

 collection of rather large branches, much flatter than, and 

 wanting the solidity, which the mud lining gives to that of 

 Crow, or Raven. To a slight extent, however, this defici- 

 ency is made up for by a considerable amount of soft stuff, 

 padded in amongst the sticks, to form a foundation for the 

 eggs. This padding generally consists largely of Luzula 

 syhatica, though in this Dinas nest there was a good deal 

 of moss and grass. The preference shown by Eagles and 

 Buzzards for the Wood-rush as a lining for their nests is 

 rather remarkable. Those of the former are rarely without 

 it, and, in the latter, it is certainly the most common sub- 

 stance made use of. I have seen nests of the Pied Fly- 

 catcher, too, composed of little else externally ; and it is, also, 

 rather a favourite plant with Dippers, for the first lining of 

 their nests, but, in the latter, the inner lining is nearly 

 always composed of dry beech, and oak leaves. 



On the mountains, it is very often a subsidiary crag, 

 rather than the chief range of precipice, that is fixed upon 



