BIRDS OF LLEYN, WEST CARNARVON SHIRE. 491 



Yr Eifl to look at Cam Trer Ceiri, that wonderful ancient town 

 of misty history, I came upon a pair of Ring-Ouzels carrying 

 food ; but a very long watch failed to reveal the exact place of 

 their nest, which was either in thick bracken or a waste of grey 

 rocks in the midst of it. The actions of the birds several times 

 completely deceived me into making a descent on some spot, only 

 to cause the birds to take up once more a commanding position, 

 and resume their loud hard " tac tac tac." Late in the afternoon 

 I heard a few wild whistling notes. Probably this group of 

 mountains is the westernmost outpost of the Ring-Ouzel in Car- 

 narvonshire, from which county it has been known since the 

 days of Willughby and Ray. " It is frequent on the high moun- 

 tains of Caernarvanshire and Merionydhshire, where they call it 

 Mwyalchen y graig, quasi dicas, Merula rupicola " (Ray's ' Syn- 

 opsis Methodica Avium,' 1713). Although Ray distinguishes 

 between the Rock-Ouzel and the Ring-Ouzel, it is obvious that 

 his description and Willughby's, to which he refers, applies to 

 the latter. The Song-Thrush was common, and the Blackbird 

 still more so ; to be found at the base of the headlands as far as 

 a few bushes extended. The Mistle-Thrush I saw two or three 

 times near Pwllheli. Mr. Coward has also met with a few. The 

 Wheatear is a common bird. On the mountains and headlands 

 and islands, as well as in some spots along the lower coast, the 

 shrill highly pitched " ece " or " ees," followed by several hard 

 " tacs " or "tecs," was a familiar sound as the pair of Wheatears, 

 accompanied by their full-grown brood, flitted on before me. The 

 only birds which enlivened the dry, stony, barren (the season had 

 been unusually dry) top of Cam Fadryn were a family of Wheat- 

 ears. I only saw the Whinchat twice — once at Abersoch, and 

 once in a low pass among the hills near Nauhoran. Mr. Coward 

 has seen a few near Abersoch. The " seet seet seet " (high), 

 " chuch" or " gurch," or " seet-gurch," of the Stonechat was to 

 be heard in all suitable places — among the gorse along the sand- 

 hills, on the moorlands, mountain slopes, the headlands, and 

 about the drier edges of the marshes. Evidently the soft climate 

 of Lleyn enables this resident to increase as it never can when 

 exposed to the severe winters of parts of England, or obliged to 

 migrate. I saw one bird with the white on its wing unusually 

 largely developed ; so much so that, seen at a distance, the bird 



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