290 Wild Life in Wales 



and sheered off. In that case, too, the Waxwings celebrated 

 their escape by loud chattering, and, mounting straight into 

 the air, disappeared. 



I suspect that more rare birds meet with an untimely 

 death at the hands of natural enemies than might be supposed, 

 other animals being quite as quick as we are (probably 

 much more so) to notice the presence of a stranger amongst 

 them. I have more than once seen the remains of a 

 Kingfisher in a Sparrow-Hawk's nest, where the former was 

 quite an uncommon bird ; and where the Pied Flycatcher, 

 in summer, was a still more unexpected resident, an 

 ornithological friend once had his attention first called 

 to the fact that a brood of these birds had been hatched 

 near his residence, by finding the remains of their male 

 parent in a nest of the same hawk. I once saw a cat 

 stalking an escaped Canary, regardless of many sparrows 

 that were twittering on the hedge much closer to her ; and 

 another time drove off two cats that were in pursuit of a 

 Budgerigar in a town garden. While sitting at breakfast 

 one morning, recently, our attention was called to a 

 Parakeet in a tree near the house, by " Tim," who had 

 been quietly slumbering on the hearthrug, suddenly starting 

 up, and jumping to the window, his feline ears having been 

 quicker than ours to be aroused by the unusual note of the 

 visitor. Many years ago I recollect seeing a Peregrine 

 Falcon single out a Greenshank (much the rarest bird in 

 the flock) from a mixed company of Plovers, Redshanks, 

 and Dunlins, that were feeding on a muddy estuary. Similar 

 experiences must recur to the minds of many people ; and 

 few of us have not noticed, at one time or another, the 

 disposition of other birds to mob a stranger that had 

 appeared amongst them. The conspicuous plumage of the 

 wanderer may sometimes be the visible cause of its undoing ; 

 but, even so, there can scarcely be a doubt but that it is by 

 such primitive methods that Nature intended the spread of 

 a species to be controlled, and that it is to the " upsetting of 

 her balance " by game-preserving man that we owe much 

 of the additions to our fauna that have taken place within 

 recent years. Protective Acts of Parliament have, doubtless, 



