500 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



above Pwllheli. Swifts were flying over the highest parts of 

 Mynydd Mawr, some way from the most outlying cottage. 

 Possibly most of the West Lleyn Swifts breed in natural sites. 

 Mr. Coward has noticed the Nightjar in three localities. The 

 Cuckoo was everywhere in average numbers, and a great many 

 haunted the sand-hills at Abersoch, which are bordered on the 

 inland side by a mass of bracken. Five were in sight at one 

 time, beating over the fern. Whenever I passed I saw some, and 

 one got up at my feet from under a bush. I noticed the Green 

 Woodpecker several times, and saw some holes in an old ash at 

 Llanbedrog. This is rather a common bird in suitable localities 

 in North Wales, in my experience. For an early record of it in 

 North Wales, we may refer to Giraldus Cambrensis, who, while 

 travelling with Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the year 

 1188, seems to have heard a Green Woodpecker in a wood near 

 the Menai Strait. It is true that some of the party declared it 

 was an aureolus, and Giraldus thought rightly so ; but other 

 people since those days seemed to have been unable to distinguish 

 between a Green Woodpecker and a Golden Oriole, It is a pity 

 that Giraldus, who tells us something of the birds of Ireland, has 

 so little to say in this respect about Wales. He refers, indeed, 

 to the large and generous race of Falcons at Pembroke, and 

 casually mentions a Kite being killed by a Weasel on which it 

 had pounced. Also, in conversation during his travels, the 

 absence of the Nightingale was commented upon, causing the 

 Archbishop (who evidently did not like Wales) to observe that 

 the bird was wiser than they were ! 



Birds of prey were scarce. A female Merlin rose, not ten 

 yards away, from a low turfy cliff on one of the headlands ; and 

 Mr. Coward has seen two or three, and mentions a nesting site. 

 He has also seen the Sparrow-Hawk once, but I did not. Kestrels 

 are to be seen along the coast, as well as inland. At least one 

 pair of Peregrines (called simply " Falcon ") breed on the cliffs. 

 Their eggs escape on account of the difficulty of discovering 

 their whereabouts, but directly the whitish downy young are 

 hatched they are usually detected, at least so an old cliff-climber 

 told me. A Falcon comes to one of the islands occasionally to 

 fetch a Puffin. Cormorants are not uncommon about the harbour 

 and most of the rocky parts of the coast. They breed on St. 



