in Among the Birds in Wales 55 



heavy English air. Probably this was the last colony 

 on this side of the mountain range which separated 

 me from the Irish Sea : the last ripple of the wave 

 of Sand-martins which comes surging in April up 

 the larger rivers, breaking into lesser parties, we may 

 suppose, to seek old haunts up the smaller streams, 

 and so touching with one of its last laps this far- 

 away mountain hamlet. Inque sinus scindit sese 

 unda reducfos ! ^ 



In my last chapter I said that in the Alps we 

 hardly see so many birds of prey as we should 

 expect in such a region ; and in this one respect at 

 least the Welsh hills are the better hunting-ground. 

 I write, indeed, with hesitation on such a subject, 

 and name no names of hill or valley ; for so long as 

 the fury of the egg-collector is unabated, so long will 

 all birds of prey be in danger— in danger far greater 

 than that to which they expose themselves by their 

 own cruelties. The young lambs may be harried 

 every spring, and the game in the larch covers may 

 attract the enemy, but still that enemy survives all 

 vengeance of the angry farmer and disgusted sports- 



1 Yet some at least of these birds arrive in Wales very early. 

 They were seen this year both in Glamorganshire and Pembroke- 

 shire during the first week of April ; while at Oxford none were 

 seen till toward the end of the month. These early arrivals 

 probably come from the Continent by way of Devon ; cf. Mr. 

 Murray Mathew's Birds of Devon, p. 59. The Sand-martin's 

 lines of migration need further investigation. 



