THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 223.— July, 1895. 



PEMBKOKESHIRE BIRDS IN 1603. 



By Rev. Murray A. Mathew, M.A., F.L.S. 



Since the publication of my ' Birds of Pembrokeshire and its 

 Islands,'* Mr. Henry Owen, B.C.L., F.S.A., has very kindly 

 forwarded to me Part I. of * The Description of Penbrokshire,' f 

 by George Owen, of Henllys, Lord of Kernes, that he is editing 

 for the " Cymmrodorion Record Series." This very quaint and 

 interesting description of the county was published in 1603, and 

 contains a short chapter entitled " Of abondance of foule that the 

 Country yeeldeth, and of the severall sortes thereof," ca. 16, 

 p. 128. I was a little surprised to read that, in Queen Elizabeth's 

 day, the Spoonbill, Platalea leucoroclia, could be included among 

 the birds nesting in trees in this county, and consider that its 

 having anciently possessed breeding stations here accounts for 

 the persistency with which the birds at the present day pay visits 

 to their ancestral haunts ; flocks (as related in my book) occa- 

 sionally still put in an appearance on the mud-flats adjacent to 

 Milford Haven, and are also not rare in the neighbouring county 

 of Cardigan on the river Dovey. The history given by the Lord 

 of Kernes of the abundance of the Woodcock in his day is pecu- 

 liarly amusing ; and his whole account of the ornis of the county 

 seems to be worthy to be subjoined in extenso. The editorial 

 footnotes are also valuable, and are given, although the identifi- 



* Keviewed in ' The Zoologist,' 1894, p. 437. 



f This is the old spelling of the name of the county, and is said to come 

 from two Welsh words, Pen " head " and broch " foam," descriptive of the 

 storm-vexed headlands of its coasts. 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XIX. — JULY, 1895. U 



