WITH THE BIRDS IN WALES 215 



by the black patch on the throat and the olive-coloured 

 rump feathers. The commoner species has no black 

 throat spot, and the rump feathers are chestnut brown. 

 In a sort of quarry close to my house I found another 

 Fern Owl "setting" on two beautiful eggs. The ground 

 colouring of this pair of eggs was china white, and the 

 grey underlying markings were very conspicuous, pre- 

 ponderating considerably over the brown marblings, 

 which were very intense in their colour. Often the 

 brown on Nightjar's eggs runs to a cinnamon colour, 

 and then they are very beautiful. I have proved that 

 some Nightjars, at all events, do not lay their two eggs 

 on consecutive days, a fact which is not generally 

 recognised. 



June ijth. This morning I received from Scotland 

 a female Peregrine, about fifteen months old, as well as 

 a clutch of four Merlin's eggs. The Peregrine was shot 

 on the 1 4th instant. The keeper who sent it to me did 

 not recognise the species in its present state of plumage, 

 which of course is not yet matured, the feathers on 

 the back running to a brown colour instead of dark 

 slate, and being edged with lighter brown, whilst the 

 spots on the breast and under-parts are rather streaks 

 than bars. I do not think that this falcon breeds until 

 mature plumage is obtained, but possibly I may be 

 wrong in this surmise. 



The Merlin's eggs taken on the nth instant were 

 extremely hard set, so that to blow them I had to 

 employ the process of maceration. I should say that 

 they would have hatched in about three days. I again 

 visited the G. rocks, where I found a Fern Owl's egg 

 yesterday, but found that it had gone probably the 



