THE BIRDS OF BRECONSHIRE. 405 
awaiting our departure. By climbing up the brow of the wood 
we could look down into the nest, in which were three young 
ones covered with yellow down, the head of one being distinctly 
visible. This was in the second week of May. At the foot of 
the tree were some partridge-feathers, but none of those castings 
that are found when the young get older. The tenant told us 
that he had seen a quantity of castings with feathers and fur in 
previous years, and that in the year 1875 there were three Kites 
in the pairing time, but that one had left; this was most probably 
a young bird of the previous year that had been bred there. I hear 
that the birds still breed in the locality; but the fact of the one 
bird staying with the old ones so long will, I think, be sufficient 
evidence of their general scarcity. 
PrereGRInE Fatcon, Falco peregrinus. — Alas! extinct or 
nearly so! I have known of several specimens killed some years 
ago, but it never bred here. I am enabled to state this as a fact, 
from the information I received from old Morgan the falconer, 
a small farmer living at Nantyrodin, near Llanwrtyd Wells, who 
I may designate as one of the last of his race. I made his 
acquaintance when fox-hunting near the cave of Twm Shon Catti, 
on the Towy, some seventeen years ago; and even now I can 
see the spare wiry figure, with long white hair waving about 
his shoulders, his eyes fairly flashing with excitement as he 
sprang from rock to rock and cheered the hounds. Many a chat 
have I had with him about his favourite sport, falconry. He 
told me that for many years he used to walk from Llanwrtyd, in 
Breconshire, to Snowdon and back nearly every year to obtain 
young Falcons, as he could not procure any in Breconshire. He 
trained and flew them himself, but when I knew him he was too 
old to climb for them. He was very fond of a Merlin, and had 
trained the female Sparrowhawk to fly at Landrails. As he 
lived in the wildest part of the county, no one interfered with him; 
he was a true lover of nature, and had a wonderful knowledge of 
everything appertaining to the habits of birds. Poor old Morgan! 
kindly in his nature, pleasant in his manner, though wild at 
times as the hawks he trained and as the scenery among which 
he lived—he is gone; and with him, in this part of the county 
at least, the practice of his favourite pastime. During my 
residence in this county (some seventeen years) I have never 
seen the Peregrine alive. I have, however, seen several stuffed 
