142 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



1893, p. 395), for I could not find the bird even in Merioneth- 

 shire (where the Blackcap and Garden-Warbler were fairly com- 

 mon) ; and a good resident observer told me that it was not found 

 there. Ray'sWagtail,too,is almost unknown in parts, at all events, 

 of Merionethshire. I visited Cam Fadryn again in a vain search 

 for the Twite. But so furious a gale had arisen by the time I 

 reached the mountain, that I had great difficulty in keeping on 

 my legs when at the top; so I do not think I proved anything 

 either way. But the Twite seems very local in North Wales. 

 I did not meet with it in the mountains between Dolgelly and 

 the coast, which I walked over. The only small bird I added to 

 my list of Lleyn birds is the Reed- Warbler. One of these birds 

 was singing, every time I visited the spot, in some tall reeds of 

 the previous year's growth in the marsh at Abersoch. Only 

 once (on the one calm evening I enjoyed) did he show himself. 

 Being cut off from the spot he constantly haunted by a broad 

 deep drain, I could only make out a river Warbler, plain brown 

 above and paler beneath. But the leisurely song was quite 

 characteristic, and I think unmistakable. The bird's habits, 

 too, contrasted strongly with those of the restless Sedge-Warblers 

 around. For even on a morning when the reeds were rudely 

 wind-shaken, and the Reed-Warbler sang, concealed from view, 

 from one and the same place for half an hour, the Sedge-Warblers 

 were always on the move, showing themselves continually, and 

 every now and then, as is their wont, dancing up into the air to 

 sing on the wing. 



The only other bird I added to my list is the Common 

 Sandpiper. One was running on the shore, left bare by the tide, 

 on the east side of Pen Cilan on the 18th; and before breakfast 

 the next morning there were several at the mouth of the Afon 

 Soch and a little way up the stream. They were very lively. 

 One was singing (the bright spring notes and trills really amount 

 to a song) very gaily, and even mounting up into the air to sing. 

 I watched a pair of Nightjars (birds which I had not previously 

 met with myself in Lleyn) one evening among the big sand-hills 

 at Abersoch, uttering their " gwik,'" clapping their wings, and 

 occasionally "turring." Another bird new to me there was the 

 Common Tern, one of which was fishing in Abersoch Bay on 

 the 23rd. This year I saw three pairs of Lesser Terns in 



