Wild Life in Wales 



laying, their nests being usually rather high up in oak trees, 

 often on a rather thick, horizontal limb, sometimes, but not 

 always, where some twigs grew to hold it in position. 



In autumn, Bramblings or Mountain Finches were 

 numerous, frequenting the beech trees near the village, 

 from about loth October, as long as the mast lasted, after 

 which they moved further down the valley. They all 

 betook themselves in the evening to Traws-coed, a wood 

 far up on mountain, to roost in the fir trees. Bramblings 

 always show a marked preference for conifers ; but failing 

 these, are content to sleep with other finches in low bushes ; 

 occasionally, I have found them roosting upon the ground, 

 on rough hillsides, in company with Red-wings, and Field- 

 fares. 1 Both of the latter appear at Llanuwchllyn for a 

 week or two, in October or November, but leave when the 

 haws have been exhausted, and seldom return. Mountain 

 Finches renew their flight feathers before coming to this 

 country in autumn ; but I have examined many specimens, 

 at different times, killed as late as the middle of December, 

 which were still heavily in the moult as regards their body 

 feathers. Young males have not assumed their full plumage 

 before they leave us in spring, the quills being renewed, in 

 in some cases, before they go. In confinement, Mountain 

 Finches undergo a full moult during the summer. 



On 29th October, three or four Tree Sparrows were 

 noticed feeding with a flock of Greenfinches and Yellow 

 Hammers, round a hay stack, near Llys Arthur ; but, 

 except on that occasion, none were seen in the Upper Dee 

 valley. They breed, however, about Wrexham, and round 

 Chester, and one day in summer I saw a single individual 

 near the station at Llangollen. The Tree Sparrow may, 

 perhaps, therefore, nest in localities not far removed from 

 that under review, or it may be extending its range in 

 Wales as elsewhere. Notwithstanding the difference in 

 note, and plumage, between this and the common Sparrow, 

 however, the two species are so similar, generally, that few 



1 The Redwing is known as Adein-goch, Asgell-fraith, or Tresglen goch ; 

 the Fieldfare as Socan Iwyd, Socan eira, grey, or snow-wanderer ; Aderyn- 

 yr-eira, and Bronfraith-yr-eira^ bird, or thrush of the snow. 



