48 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



birds that I saw on Mynydd Mawr. On a fine hot morning 

 (28th) a Chough was turning over sheep-droppings among the 

 heather-tufts in a search for insects, and now and then crying 

 "k'chare." At the top I surprised four together, and as I 

 rested there another flew past close to me. Choughs are too 

 tame. They appear to go some distance to feed. Eeturning 

 from a long hot tramp that afternoon, I had paused, as one 

 must, at the old water-mill to gaze down into the cool depths of 

 the ivied wheel-case, where the Dipper has bred, and listen to 

 the splash, splash of this ancient back-over-shot wheel (the only 

 one I remember seeing), when the familiar ringing cry came 

 down, and two Choughs passed over high up, and going towards 

 Mynydd Annelog, whence eggs were sent to Wilmot as long ago 

 as 1846 (' Ootheca Wolleyana '). Another day, before breakfast, 

 a pair came along the coast, over the church, and headed for 

 the same place, mobbed on the way by four Jackdaws. From a 

 boat when under Penrhyn Du I saw a little place in the cliff 

 which looked as if a hawk had nested* — a little shelf part of 

 the way down a perpendicular crevice — and was told that in the 

 spring a pair of Choughs came and tried it ; they appear to have 

 found it unsuitable, but bred that year on Llanbedrog Head, not 

 far away. One at least of the young ones had been taken, and 

 was then flying about by the quay at Abersoch. It was absurdly 

 tame, biting at your fingers, and afforded a nice opportunity of 

 studying the most graceful flight of this beautiful bird. I saw 

 a pair on Pen Cilan. One pair there had their eggs taken, and 

 the other pair, which used to breed in a cave, do not appear to 

 have nested there this year. I watched a pair on Penrhyn Du. 

 One of them sat preening itself on a bit of old rail in one of the 

 cross-banks just outside the big bank separating the heathery 

 cliff top, which is open to sheep, from the partly cultivated land 

 inside. It was a well-used spot, and "castings" lying on the 

 ground showed that the birds had been eating barley already. I 

 have seen birds there in former years. Having picked up some 

 quills and enjoyed the unusual experience of cleaning my pipe 

 out with a Chough's primary while I watched the birds feeding 

 and flitting about a pasture, I moved on. There were many 

 Stonechats about wherever there were any bushes ; some Pee- 



* A few years ago a Merlin did so close here. 



