ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM MID-WALES. 5 



by a resolute and reliable watcher, never out of sight of the nest 

 night or day. A clean sweep had also been made of the Buzzards' 

 eggs, and it is probable that a dozen pairs did not succeed col' 

 lectively in bringing off more than three or four young. 



Egg-collecting, and not the persecution of the gamekeeper, 

 will be eventually responsible for the extinction of both the Kite 

 and Buzzard in Central Wales. 



Mr. Grubb tells me that he found the Pied Flycatcher ex- 

 tremely scarce, in marked contrast to its abundance the previous 

 year. 



The following notes contain a summary of the information 

 obtained in response to a printed circular asking for details as 

 to the occurrence or otherwise of certain species whose distribu- 

 tion in Wales appears to be imperfectly known. 



With regard to the Lesser Whitethroat, Capt. Swainson 

 amplifies the account which he has given of this species in 

 Breconshire in ' The Zoologist ' for 1891, p. 356. He writes of 

 it as being not uncommon at Brecon, and sparingly distributed 

 over all the lowlands of the county. It occurs westward up to 

 the point where the Mynydd Epynt hills begin to rise. " The 

 most westerly point at which I have ever heard it is Llanwrtyd." 

 As far as my own experience goes, the Lesser Whitethroat is 

 entirely wanting in Cardiganshire. In Montgomeryshire I heard 

 it at Welshpool on May 26th, 1900. Mr. G. H. Caton-Haigh 

 has only one doubtful record of it in Merionethshire. Mr. 0. V. 

 Aplin failed to identify it in the Lleyn peninsula of Carnarvon- 

 shire, but states that Mr. Coward observed a pair breeding at 

 Abersoch in May, 1893 (Zool. Nov. 1900, p. 492). 



It may be said then that the Lesser Whitethroat ranges, upon 

 the eastern side, up to the foot of the chain of elevated moors 

 and sheep-walks which forms the backbone of the Principality, 

 but seldom or never crosses these treeless uplands, and is con- 

 sequently absent from Western Wales. To this statement Mr. 

 Coward's observation appears to furnish the sole exception. 



None of my correspondents have any knowledge of the Tree 

 Sparrow in Wales. Capt. Swainson says, " I have never been 

 able to find it, although I have always been on the look-out." 



Another species to whose distribution a special interest 

 attaches is the Twite, As regards Breconshire, Capt, Swainson 



