ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM MID-WALES. '6 



weeks from May 19th in a remote part of the county. Only one 

 Kite was observed, and the immemorial breeding haunt at 

 Ystrad Ffin appeared to be deserted. At least eleven pairs of 

 Buzzards were found to be nesting within a radius of some six 

 miles from his headquarters, and instances in which the first- 

 hatched and strongest nestling bullied the younger ones to death 

 were again noted. In fact, this may be said to be a usual habit 

 of Welsh Buzzards. Kestrels were tenanting a nest from which 

 young Bavens had flown. Another Kestrel, having taken 

 possession of a deserted Buzzard's nest, was sitting upon two 

 Buzzard's eggs in addition to her own. A pair of Ravens in 

 the Yrfon Valley had two young upon the wing. Pied Fly- 

 catchers were breeding freely, often in disused holes of the 

 Green or Greater Spotted Woodpecker. 



On August 30th, when ascending Cader Idris, I heard a 

 Baven above Llyn-y-Cau. The Chiffchaff sang upon Sept. 16th 

 and again upon Oct. 2nd, rather a late date. Bedwings put in 

 an appearance on Oct. 20th, and four days later a Thrush was 

 coming into song again. An unusually large party of Long- 

 tailed Tits numbered twenty-five. On Nov. 22nd a Chough 

 passed over my house at a good height. A Mistle-Thrush was 

 singing at the close of the year. 



The year 1901 opened with mild, bright weather. On 

 Jan. 1st Wood-Pigeons were cooing. On the 3rd a Baven 

 passed high overhead croaking angrily. A month later, snow 

 inland brought a few Golden Plover to the neighbourhood of 

 the coast. On March 9th I watched numerous Curlew, a party 

 of thirty Shieldrakes, and three Wigeon upon the sand-banks 

 of the Dovey. Visiting the Bird Bock near Towyn upon Easter 

 Monday, I found that as yet only half-a-dozen Cormorants were 

 to be seen upon the breeding ledges. Five or six pairs of 

 Herons were nesting in tall larches at Peniarth, further down 

 the valley. A Wood-Lark was singing in the Nant Berwyn on 

 April 17th. On the 26th I heard the note of the Turtle-Dove 

 at Wallog, a decidedly early date for the arrival of this migrant, 

 which is a scarce and local visitant to Western Wales. A Tree- 

 Creeper nested for the fourth year in succession in precisely the 

 same spot, between an ivy-stem and the tree-trunk. 



Visiting the Teifi Bog, near Tregaron, on May 25th, I found 



b 2 



