Anglesey 



often as I would, there was no change in her way 

 or place of perching. Only after I had kept her 

 waiting an unconscionable time whilst photographing 

 the nest, did she return with her mate, both being so 

 excited that I thought they must needs speak out ; 

 but no rearranging the eggs to her liking, she 

 slipped silently on to the nest, and her mate went 

 silently back to his perch. 



The spotted flycatcher is like a child-bird so 

 lightly troubled, so soon reassured. Long-suffering, 

 uncomplaining, it appeals to one by its very silence. 

 When it is perching, with head and bill slightly 

 depressed, it has a pensive air, and only when it 

 suddenly darts out, hovers, and breaks back to its 

 perch with the deftly-caught fly, does one feel 

 satisfied that this modest little spirit also has its joy 

 of life in small activities and quiet ways. 



I must offer a late apology for getting over the 

 wall dividing the Menai Road from the long wood- 

 land slope which runs between it and the stony shore 

 of the Menai Strait below. We yielded to the fiery 

 temptation of a redstart's tail. We had heard them 

 " tet-tet "-ing inside a protest like a robin's, but 

 delivered with more than a robin's force. We were 

 not long in discovering a female whose beak, filled 

 with the little green caterpillars which seem to form 

 the diet of most young birds hereabouts, declared 

 that she was on her way to her own young ones. 

 She was very uneasy at first, and flitted from branch 

 to branch in the neighbourhood of her nest. Then 



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