378 Wild Life in Wales 



them as cage birds, naturally attract some professional bird- 

 catchers, who arrive from Wrexham, and elsewhere, as soon 

 as the close season is ended, and with the help of call birds, 

 and limed twigs, sometimes make large inroads upon the 

 flocks. One man I saw with eighteen one day it was the 

 2nd August, all young birds except two, and all taken in 

 the course of a few hours. They meet with a ready and 

 immediate sale, he informed me, at one shilling each ; or if 

 he kept them for a few weeks, till they came into colour, he 

 expected to get half-a-crown apiece for them. He had also 

 caught two or three Sywigw gwnffonhir^ or Long-tailed Tits, 

 from a flock which had chanced to visit his limed twigs, but 

 these he allowed to go again as being of no use to him. 

 The only other birds which it paid to catch being, he said, 

 Linnets, and Redpolls, and these only if he could count 

 upon getting a larger number than was possible here just 

 now. 



There was a Dipper's nest, on the Twrch, below Plas, in 

 rather an unusual situation, viz. on the sloping side of a 

 large boulder, on the gravel, in mid stream ; and one day I 

 lay up in the bushes near, and spent four hours (twelve to 

 four) in taking some photographs of it, and the old birds 

 when they came to feed the half-grown young it contained. 

 During that time, the male came eight times, and the female 

 once oftener, so that the young there were four of them 

 were fed about every quarter of an hour, or, if they took 

 share and share alike, each would receive a billful only once 

 in an hour. All the food brought appeared to be insects, 

 or their larvae, the wings of the former being often con- 

 spicuous enough ; one large yellow May-fly was brought. 

 As a rule, the birds went different ways, one up the other 

 down stream ; but several times they exchanged routes, and 

 once or twice went together. Scarcely any hunting was 

 done within sight of the nest. When the birds happened 

 to arrive together, the male always greeted his partner with 

 a little song, and was very demonstrative in his bowing and 

 bobbing, and the flirting of his wings. Frequently they 



1 Also called Lleian gynffonhir, long- tailed nun ; and Gwas-y-dryw, wren's 

 servant. 



