Wild Life in Wales 



the minstrel's silence during the greater part of the day, 

 but he seldom fails to find time for a stave or two at even ; 

 while for an hour or so after dawn, the welkin rings with 

 song, throughout the summer, every bird contributing its 

 quota. The arrival of the moulting season, however, stops 

 the music, and only a few species sing again before 

 winter puts an end to it altogether. Nor, on the other 

 hand, can it be said that the fair one is captivated by mere 

 display of dress. There must be other deciding virtues 

 than these in the avine world ; for, in a large number of 

 cases, the full plumage is not donned till after partners 

 have been chosen ; and, in fact, many males never complete 

 their nuptial garb at all. 



The Stonechats which spend the winter in this country, 

 seem invariably to do so in pairs, though two or three pairs 

 may sometimes consort together, in certain favoured spots. 

 Their habits, at that season, better justify their common 

 name than at any other ; for, in winter, it is comparatively 

 rare to meet with them far from the neighbourhood of 

 rocks, and stones then form some of their favourite perches. 

 The name usually given to the bird, in Wales, is Clochdar- 

 y-cerryg, or "Clucker of the rocks," recalling the Gaelic 

 Clacharan, or Cloichearan, and its appropriateness was forcibly 

 borne in upon me, one very cold day in early February, 

 when during a fox-hunt, in deep snow, the only occupants 

 of a bleak range of rocks, high up on Rhobell Fawr 

 (2300 feet above the sea), were found to be a pair of these 

 birds, which had taken up their winter quarters there, and 

 greeted the unusual concourse of men, and dogs, with their 

 familiar notes of Hey \ chuck, chuck. It is, however, in just 

 such inhospitable spots that the Stonechat most delights to 

 winter, in a mountainous country. Round Llanuwchllyn, 

 similarly isolated pairs were met with, each year, on the 

 Ddwallt, and above Buarth-meini ; but none were ever 

 seen, at that season, in the lower valleys. Indeed, the 

 birds seem more inclined to " push out," than to " draw in 

 by" as most other live creatures do, on the approach of 

 bad weather ; and for three or four months of the year 

 their only feathered companions are the Ravens, or Falcons, 



