144 BIRD LIFE IN WILD WALES 



were en evidence ; but we did not stop here long, but 

 continued our route to a bracken stack made on the 

 edge of a largish tract of marshy ground. Here we 

 hoped to find a Snipe's nest, but we were not in luck, 

 though we certainly flushed one bird of this species ; 

 and there may have been a sitting bird somewhere to 

 hand ; but unless one almost treads on a brooding 

 Snipe it is a hundred to one against finding the nest. 

 Continuing along the moor, we followed the course 

 of a rough stone wall, where a pair of Wheatears 

 evinced considerable anxiety, and no doubt they had 

 a nest of young close by ; but to find it we should 

 have been obliged to pull many yards of wall down. 

 We also flushed another Snipe, but again were un- 

 successful in our endeavours to find its home. Both 

 the above-mentioned Snipe got up several yards in 

 front of us, and so we knew that they had not risen 

 from their eggs, for this species u sits " till almost 

 trodden on. In this last bog we dropped across four 

 young Peewits just hatched funny little fellows. 



We returned by the Black Bog and heard a Snipe 

 " bleating " there. This bog is a very treacherous 

 and deep one ; it has small islands scattered about 

 on it, but these are next to impossible to reach. A 

 few years ago a pair of Teal bred here, but were, I 

 believe, disturbed, and so never brought a brood off. 

 The Blackcap's nest which I found a few days back 

 now contains four eggs of the ordinary type. The 

 Willow Wrens which I noticed building at the end 

 of last month have seven eggs. 



May i^th. I punted myself across the river and 

 made straight for a large larch plantation on the E. 



