374 Wild Life in Wales 



promises the matter by laying her eggs on a ledge of ling- 

 covered rock amongst the woods, or even on the ground at 

 the base of a tree, making little more attempt at a nest than 

 a slight scrape in the ground. Or the few twigs brought 

 together at the beginning of the building operations are 

 discarded as incubation proceeds ; so that, by the time the 

 young are hatched, there is nothing to keep them from the 

 soil, unless it be the stones, or roots of growing heather. 



The Wood-Pigeon accommodates itself to a great variety 

 of food, few vegetable substances, whether bulbous roots, 

 young shoots, or mature seeds, coming amiss to it. In 

 Wales I found it eating the flowering shoots of heather 

 (Calluna vulgaris), as well as half-ripe blackberries ; else- 

 where I have noted it swallowing that worst bugbear of the 

 gardener, the common grey slug (Limax agrestis). It eats 

 the berries of many trees, including those of the yew and 

 the mountain ash, generally pulling them from the branches 

 and disregarding those which drop to the ground. Ivy 

 berries are also a favourite food, as are, likewise, acorns and 

 beech-nuts. When the latter are ripe, and have fallen, the 

 three-cornered seeds are picked up amongst the dead leaves 

 on the ground ; but before they ripen, the " nut " is often 

 plucked from the tree, and swallowed whole, the inclosing 

 involucre being ground up by the powerful gizzard along 

 with its contained fruit. In spring, Ring Doves are very 

 fond of the bulbous and rather acrid roots of the Lesser 

 Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria\ a similar taste being apparent 

 when they devour a clump of the common Stone-crop 

 (Sedum acre). On one occasion I was rather surprised to 

 see one caught in a trap set for crows, by the side of a 

 stream, and baited with an egg ; but, in that case, curiosity 

 only had, no doubt, been the cause of its misfortune. 



Buarthmeini is the farm passed on the left bank of the 

 Lliw, just before the higher falls are reached. The name, 

 signifying " Stone inclosure," is amply justified by the 

 many remains of old walls with which the face of the hill is 

 studded. Arenig lava is thickly scattered over the surface, 

 in pieces large and small, and has been made use of in the 

 erection of these in every possible direction. The old 



