The Zoologist— May, 1869. 1673 



Voeltrigarn sundew was growing in the greatest profusion : here we 

 found the remains of a young common snipe about half fledged, but 

 saw no old birds ; three herring gulls and one lesser blactbacked gull 

 were on the bog, but very shy — I was, however, able to distinguish 

 the species: they are said to return to the coast every evening, which 

 is only about five miles as they would go. I thought we should have 

 found more species of birds, and so far was disappointed, but we 

 gained information only to be had by such a walk, — and many, if not 

 all who take the trouble to see for themselves, have experienced the 

 like. The hen harrier I have no doubt bred on these mountains a few 

 years since, as an old man very correctly described the bird to me ; 

 he lives near, and says now and then one comes in the winter ; the 

 Welsh name means, " the whitetailed hen of the mountains." 

 Thirty years since the buzzard is also said to have been common. 

 " Boncath" is the Welsh name for this bird, and close to this place is 

 a little village of that name : as the names of Welsh places are gene- 

 rally derived from something particular in connexion with them, 

 may we not take it as a corroboration of the statement made to me. 



Grasshopfer Warbler. — The first time I heard this bird in Wales 

 was one afternoon in Jnly, 1866 — it was just within Carmarthenshire, 

 in a boggy place overgrown with alder and rushes ; since then I have 

 heard the bird near Whitechurch, in a similar locality. Last year two 

 males came for a iQ'W evenings in Jul}' close to this house ; they were 

 in two small clumps of blackthorn about forty yards from each other; 

 they begin their peculiar whirring note about dusk, when I have stood 

 within a few feet of them without their being the least disturbed. 



Sedf/e Warbler. — As far as I am able to judge, this bird is generally 

 distributed in the low lying localities, but nowhere numerous. 



Bohemian Waxwing. — I am informed by my friend Mr. J. Phillips, 

 of Newcastle Emlyn, that a single bird of this species was shot a iew 

 years since near Llandyssil, in Carmarthenshire. 



Pied Wagtail. — Every autumn w'e see flocks, which stay a few 

 days as they pass south; I particularly noted about fifty on the 16th 

 of September, 1866; they remained about ten days, and kept very 

 much together during their stay : this year, on the 2'2nd of March, I 

 saw nine in fine summer plumage— they were all males; when I dis- 

 turbed them they rose up nearly out of sight, and went off in a north- 

 easterly direction. 



Rays Wagtail. — I have only once been able to identify this bird in 

 this district, when five were seen on the 24th of August, 18R7. 



SECOND SERIES — VOL- IV. 2 B 



