278 



Wild Life in Wales 



such food as much as other animals do ; but, at present, I 

 can do no more than throw out the suggestion. 



Lichens are well known to contain a considerable quantity 

 of starchy matter lichenine which makes them a valuable 

 food for domestic stock, where better is not to be had. 

 Cattle, reindeer, and pigs, are wintered on very little else 

 than " Iceland moss " (Cetraria islandica), and " Reindeer 

 moss" (Cladonia rangiferind]^ (both natives of our moors) 

 in the Arctic regions, and these are also turned to account 

 as human food. They still find a place in the British 

 Pharmacy as an occasional diet for invalids, and in Russia 

 an alcoholic spirit is distilled from them. Deer, and cattle, 

 living upon nothing else, in Greenland, are said to thrive 

 well upon such food, and to give excellent milk. On our 

 moors, goats, and deer, are fond of eating lichens of several 

 kinds, particularly those growing upon birch, and hazel, 

 while sheep will sometimes greedily devour the grey patches 

 growing amongst damp moss, though they discard the 

 latter. When entombed under snow, a sheep will nibble 

 every morsel of lichen from the rocks within reach ; and 

 after a storm, I have sometimes noticed where the golden 

 patches of Parmelia parietina one of the familiar " stain 

 craigs," or " staneraw " had been eaten by voles from a 

 wall. What more likely, then, that birds, too, may find 

 lichens useful on occasion ? 



So much for some of the possible foods of the Stonechat, 

 and its neighbours ; let us now turn to its changes of 

 plumage, and some of its other habits. Those individuals 

 that winter in this country but a fraction of those which 

 breed here invariably do so in pairs ; and on the return of 

 spring, they seldom move very far from their winter 

 quarters, in order to nest. Very often, they only adjourn 

 to some neighbouring grassy slope, or to a patch of heather, 

 or gorse, about the roots of which they build ; and as soon 

 as the young are fledged, they are brought back to the 

 greater security of the rocks. Here they remain till able to 

 take care of themselves, after which they may wander away, 

 in a straggling party, across the moors. The old birds, 

 meanwhile, remain behind, and frequently bring off a second 



