Birds by Land and Sea 



inland at this point, Table Mountain, or the Round 

 Table, as it is variously called, lay before us. 

 It can only be called a mountain by courtesy, but 

 its remarkable flat top merits to the full its name of 

 " Table." It is open, gorse-covered moorland, pure 

 and simple a delightful, lonely place, to which I 

 hope to devote closer attention at some future time. 

 Beside the meadow-pipits and linnets, the usual in- 

 habitants of such upland tracts, we found the yellow- 

 hammer, whose absence from the lower ground about 

 Beaumaris we remarked, in considerable numbers on 

 this higher land. The yellow-hammer is plentiful 

 with us on the Cheshire border, in the rich pasture 

 and arable lands, and we were surprised to observe 

 its preference here for the wilder uplands. 



We found the willow-wren also where there 

 was scarcely a tree, or leafy bush, in sight. Its 

 young were perching on the stone walls and gorse 

 bushes, and were being fed with the tenderest portion 

 of the gorse bloom instead of the little green cater- 

 pillars which form their usual diet in the lowlands. 



But the bird most abundant in this land of 

 coarse grass and gorse was the stonechat. " Chat ! 

 chat I " sounded from all sides wherever we went, 

 and the sprightly little bird might be seen on all 

 hands perching on the tops of the gorse bushes. 

 Approach, and he flits to the top of another bush 

 always on the look-out, always demonstrating and 

 remonstrating. His note and gestures at once recall 

 those of the wheatear which we left, not on gorse 



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