404 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



come across them on the bare bracken-covered limestone uplands 

 which constitute the Deer Park, where they were no doubt feeding 

 on the ants which swarmed beneath the stones. It was strange 

 to continually hear the laughing cry of the bird in a district so 

 dissimilar from the well-timbered park-land which we usually 

 associate with the species in Cheshire. 



The hollow trees in the dell provide accommodation for a 

 large colony of Tree- Sparrows — a bird whose distribution in 

 Wales is but little known. Many pairs, too, were nesting in the 

 walnuts and ashes in the Priory grounds, and we noted a single 

 isolated pair in a hedgerow sycamore near the schoolhouse at 

 Penmon. On June 3rd and 4th we saw several birds carrying 

 nesting materials into holes, presumably preparing for a second 

 brood. House- Sparrows were often nesting in the same trees 

 as the smaller species, and in two cases at least their untidy 

 structures were visible in the loose foundations of nests in the 

 rookery. The pushful Starling was, as might be expected, 

 abundant. At Penmon birds were feeding young in the old 

 Woodpeckers' holes; while in old walls, cottage roofs, the lime- 

 stone cliffs, and trees in the woods, every likely hole was occupied 

 by Starlings. During the first week in June numbers of birds 

 were still busily feeding young in the nest, but many others had 

 packed, and flocks of two to three hundred individuals were 

 roosting in the old thorns in Penmon Park. 



Several pairs of Spotted Flycatchers and Creepers were 

 nesting in the dell, and Wood-Wrens, Whitethroats, Blackcaps, 

 Willow-Wrens, and Bullfinches in the undergrowth. The Wren, 

 of course, was common here ; we found a nest in an unusual 

 situation — suspended at the extremity of a drooping branch of 

 elder, concealed by the surrounding leaves. 



At midday on June 1st, when one of us was sitting beneath 

 the trees, a male Siskin alighted in the lower branches of an ash, 

 not fifteen paces away. Its forked tail, greenish plumage, grey- 

 striped flanks, and black crown, forehead, and throat showed 

 clearly in the strong sunlight. Subsequently we both searched 

 for the bird on many occasions, but without success. 



The stream that trickles through the dell is dammed, forming 

 a little tree-sheltered pool, where a pair of Moorhens had a 

 brood, and where at dusk the Pipistrelles hawked for flies, 



