Anglesey 



three determined viragos who would run him to 

 earth again before he got very far. 



Several inland birds build in the bushes growing 

 upon this stretch of sand cliff. Thrush and black- 

 bird are there, and skulk in the hollows in the rocks 

 just as they skulk among the evergreens in an inland 

 garden. Greenfinches and tree-sparrows also are 

 there, and the latter had built beneath an old green- 

 finch's nest, thereby dispensing with the usual dome 

 to its own. Starlings, with a shrewd eye to the 

 limitations of human stature, had built in holes 

 drilled an arm's length deep in the face of the cliff, 

 turning seamen for the nonce. Sand-martins, too, 

 had returned to their old holes in a damp, soft patch 

 of sandy cliff, and spent their time flying backwards 

 and forwards before them during the daytime upon 

 the same line and in much the same manner as the 

 bats which replaced them in the evening. 



Near to the martins' haunt, a pair of common 

 wrens had reared their brood in a nest packed in 

 among the hanging roots left by the fallen sand at 

 the head of the low sand cliff. The male bird shown 

 in the picture is standing at the side opening to 

 his globular nest, having just brought food for the 

 young, and is probably reflecting that the photo- 

 graphic camera at which he is looking is a strangely 

 inert creature to have three such long legs. 



Wherever there is a stretch of open shingle, 

 especially if backed on the land side by any green 

 cover where the young may hide, one is sure to be 



183 



