206 BIRD LIFE IN WILD WALES 



rarer birds are allowed to nestle in peace. The 

 dealer is the worst offender in this respect, for he 

 stops at nothing, and will take as many clutches of 

 a good thing as he can find. I expect that many 

 Redstart's eggs are palmed off as Pied Flycatchers', 

 as away from the nest and parent birds they are 

 not as a rule to be distinguished. By the way, 

 these two species will occasionally lay in the same 

 nest, and he would be a bold man indeed who 

 would say for certain which egg was which. On 

 the way home I tried to find a Nightjar's " nest." 

 This bird, I am told, is less plentiful here than in 

 former summers, and I think that this same remark 

 applies to many of our smaller birds, such as Wag- 

 tails, Swallows, Martins, and yet they cannot have 

 suffered so much at the hands of bird-catchers as 

 Goldfinches, Linnets, and Redpoles have. 



Of course all migratory birds are subject to some 

 fluctuation in numbers annually, but this can well 

 be understood, as a good deal depends on the sort 

 of passage they have, when many may die from one 

 cause or another. 



June \2th. Walked into B. by the river and was 

 much interested in watching many pairs of Sand- 

 martins, which are nesting in the river-banks. Bird- 

 lovers will have noticed that some nests of this 

 species contain a plentiful lining of feathers, whereas 

 others have none at all. Now, I think that these 

 feathers are added after the young are hatched, and 

 I should be glad to know what other naturalists 

 think about this. In a highish piece of bank I 

 found a Kingfisher's nest, but it must have been one 



