420 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



An observation of his own is worth repeating here, as a piece 

 of good advice to young naturalists, and as a fitting conclusion to 

 this imperfect memoir. In 1889 he wrote : — " Darwin once, in 

 a letter to me, expressed his surprise that with all my parish 

 work and church duties to attend to, I was able to do so much in 

 Natural History. The secret of the matter lay simply in a well- 

 considered arrangement of time and occupations. I was always 

 an early riser, seldom, unless indisposed by illness, getting up 

 later than six o'clock till past four score years. I had also con- 

 tracted a habit of turning all leisure hours and half-hours to good 

 account and (what I consider of much importance in all work 

 requiring time and thought), never attempting two things at once, 

 but for so long as circumstances allowed, throwing my whole mind 

 into whatever I was engaged upon as if there was nothing else to 

 attend to ; in accordance with the scriptural maxim — ' Whatever 

 thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.' " 



ON THE DISTBIBUTION AND HABITS OF THE PIED 



FLYCATCHEK IN WALES. 



By E. A. Swainson. 



Having lived for ten years in the midst of one of the chief 

 Welsh haunts of the Pied Flycatcher (Muscicapa atricapilla) , it 

 has occurred to me that so far as Wales is concerned, this bird has 

 been rather overlooked in works on British ornithology, and that 

 more details on the subject would be of interest. Most of the 

 books describe it as occurring in a few places in North Wales, 

 while Central Wales, where it is probably as common as in any 

 part of the kingdom, is but briefly alluded to. In reply to a 

 request for information, which the editor of * The Field * was 

 kind enough to publish for me, I received letters from several 

 observers, bringing to light some fresh localities where this bird 

 passes the summer, or has accidentally occurred ; and I am now 

 able to add two more counties — Cardigan and Montgomery — to 

 the six from which it had been before recorded. I propose to 

 bring together the notes kindly sent me by correspondents, and 

 to make a summary of the already published matter on the 

 subject, also to add some of my own notes on its habits in 

 Breconshire. 



