NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF ANGLESEA. 405 



replacing the Swallows and House-Martins that fed by day, as, 

 above the trees, the Noctules replaced the Swifts. At this pool, 

 one day, we watched a Robin take insects repeatedly from the 

 surface of the water. In its flight from bough to bough it 

 checked its course, hovering for an instant as it seized its food ; 

 not taking its prey "in its stride," as a Swallow or Flycatcher 

 does. 



On June 3rd a pair of Creepers were feeding fully-fledged 

 young (they left the nest on the following day) in a nest between 

 the thick stem of an old ivy and the park-wall at Penmon. In 

 nineteen minutes the parent birds made thirty visits, bringing 

 green caterpillars and some black insects we could not identify 

 from the neighbouring thorns. 



Save for the trees near the Priory, and a few old gnarled 

 thorns, the low limestone hills of the Penmon promontory are 

 treeless ; several hundred acres are enclosed within high stone 

 walls. The turf is cropped by innumerable Rabbits, whose burrows 

 honeycomb the ground, providing nesting-holes for many Wheat- 

 ears, and a few pairs of Stock-Doves and Sheld-Ducks. In the 

 bracken, which covers many acres, a fair number of Nightjars 

 crouched during the day ; and Lapwings, though common in the 

 open country everywhere, were nowhere so abundant as here. 

 There were several pairs of Meadow-Pipits near the Point, and 

 along the cliffs from Penmon to Redwharf Bay ; but the bird is 

 not generally distributed. The Sky-Lark, on the other hand, 

 was common everywhere. 



At the lowest part of the park is a shallow pool, which, shel- 

 tered by a high wall from the road that skirts the beach, affords 

 a secluded retreat for Curlews and Ringed Plovers at high water. 

 Indeed, one or two pairs of the latter bird had forsaken the ad- 

 jacent shingle, and were nesting on the rush-grown turf by the 

 pool-side. A male Sheld-Duck constantly frequented the water, 

 where at times he was joined by his mate, who was brooding in a 

 Rabbit-burrow on the limestone bank two hundred feet above, 

 and a quarter of a mile inland. On the evening of June 5th, as 

 we were walking across the high land in the Deer Park, we saw 

 a small bird swimming on this pool. When we approached 

 nearer we found that it was a Red-necked Phalarope, and though, 

 in the pouring rain and fading light, it was impossible to dis- 



