224 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Sparrow is everywhere, nesting in cliffs and hedgerow-thorns, as 

 well as in more conventional situations. The Linnet and 

 Yellow Bunting, as might be expected in a country where there 

 is so much gorse, are common, and the Lesser Redpoll, though 

 less plentiful than further east, is evenly distributed and far 

 from rare. 



Holyhead Mountain, the highest hill in Anglesea, rising to 

 720 ft., dominates the town. The higher part of the Mountain 

 is a bare rocky waste where birds are little in evidence. Herring- 

 Gulls drift across to their nests on the cliffs, or congregate to 

 bathe in the shallow fresh-water pools which occur here and 

 there ; now and then one sees a beetle-hunting Kestrel poised 

 against the sky, while a few Stonechats enliven the desolation 

 of the upper slopes. The Stonechat is everywhere abundant in 

 Anglesea, and especially so in the coastwise districts ; in one 

 small patch of gorse at Llanfwrog we saw seven cocks, four of 

 them "chacking" from the tops of the bushes, within a space of 

 a few yards. When one of the quarrelsome little birds intruded 

 on another's territory there was a chase, the bright plumaged 

 birds flashing amongst the golden gorse. The Stonechat's habit 

 of feeding in reed-beds in autumn appears to be little known ; in 

 October, 1901, we saw several birds in the reeds at Llyn Maelog, 

 clinging like Reed-Buntings to the stems, and a single bird was 

 feeding in a bed of Scirpas at another lake. A week previously 

 one of the writers had watched several feeding in the reeds at 

 Crymlyn Bog near Swansea. 



The lower slopes of Holyhead Mountain are devoid of trees ; 

 the rough pastures and fields under cultivation are divided from 

 one another by walls of stone or turf ; most of the ground, how- 

 ever, is furzy waste, beloved by Blackbirds and Hedge- Sparrows ; 

 indeed, we know of no locality where the Hedge-Sparrow is so 

 abundant. In treeless Anglesea the telegraph-wires are con- 

 stantly used by birds as vantage points from which to sing ; the 

 wires which cross the Mountain to the South Stack, as well as 

 every prominent rock or stone, are requisitioned by the Song- 

 Thrushes and Blackbirds. 



The Nightjar is common on the Mountain, as everywhere on 

 the wastes and rocky outcrops ; sometimes it too will squat on 

 the top of a telegraph-pole, and churr from this elevated position, 



