\o THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID WILD LIFE IN WALES PHEASANT ON NEST. Frontispiece WILD LIFE IN WALES BY GEORGE BOLAM LONDON FRANK PALMER 12-14 RED LION COURT All rights reserved First Published in 1913 k- Ltbv^vy CONTENTS FAGS CHAPTER I Introductory Lack of English No schooling Music "A cup of tea?" Poultry Oatcakes Pancakes Eggs Lipton Dewar Small farms Wild sheep Leading sheep Collies Numbers of dogs and sheep Blue Merles Sheep- worrying Sheep fairs Welsh mutton . . I CHAPTER II Agricultural Customs Changes of tenancy Valuations of sheep Types of sheep Clipping lambs Long names Contented farmers Black cattle Bulls Ploughing Threshing Winnowing Agricultural improvements Old milestone Meanness ...... 9 CHAPTER III Llanuwchllyn Bala Lake Cymmer Abbey " Bala has gone and will go again " Fair Vale of Edeirnion And legend of the Dee Grayling Salmon Trout Angling season Size of trout Pike Miller's- thumb Pike fishing Perch Gudgeon Minnows . . . . 18 CHAPTER IV Gwyniads Numbers Dimensions And uses of Ancient lay Roach Rudd Breams Hybrid fish Eels ...... 30 CHAPTER V Bala Lake Geological features Llan-y-cil Wildfowl Habits of Possible increase of Grebes Coots Efficient watchers Sentinels . , 39 CHAPTER VI Cormorants Rapacity of Swallowing powers Prototypes of heraldry As food Sparrow pie and other dainties Shags . . . .46 CHAPTER VII Dabchicks Great Crested Grebes TealFalcons "Vermin "A brilliant meteor Buzzards Kestrels . . . . . . ' ... 52 vi Wild Life in Wales CHAPTER VIII Dolgelly The water-shed Drws-y-nant Monks of Cymmer Abbey Gold Nannaw The Demon Haunt Age of oaks Caterpillar plagues A silk dress or trees Nature's workshop . . . . .58 CHAPTER IX A caterpillar year Its effect on birds Pied Flycatchers Nesting boxes Increase and death-rate amongst birds Changes in fauna Plumage of Flycatchers "Spinners" . . . . . . . 66 CHAPTER X Spotted eggs Origin And continuance of Hawfinch Woodpeckers Fasting caterpillars Dried-up lichen . ... -73 CHAPTER XI A mountain walk Advent of Spring Its effect on insects, flowers, and birds Sable singers and weird serenades "Not by his bill we know the Woodcock" . . t ...- . -79 CHAPTER XII Midges Effect of frost and damp upon them And upon caterpillars, and other insects and animals Blood-worms and Water-worms Screws Gnats and Mosquitoes Midgy Smoke-like columns Swallows and other birds flying high Weather prognostics . . . . 84 CHAPTER XIII Mole-trapping Farmers' friends Nature's drainers Habits of the Mole Price of skins Names Varieties Superstitions . , . . 89 CHAPTER XIV A mountain walk Moths Protective mimicry Roman remains King Arthur Caer-gai Drumming of Snipe Effect of landslip A modern moraine heap Weeping ashes Tall stones Thrushes and Blackbirds Food and songs of Frogs Newts Aquatic sheep Moths Butterflies Dragon-flies . . i . . . 96 CHAPTER XV Liverpool's water supply Lake Vyrnwy Its fishing Tasteful planting Brambles Vitality of seeds Barrows May-flies Creeper fishing Black-game . . .'. U 3 CHAPTER XVI Lake Vyrnwy continued Cattle Rhiw Argor Giant's stairway Mountain berries Hag of the midnight mist Bogs Polecats Highland and Welsh keepers Poultry thieves Taffy was a Welshman Cock-crowing Dew Glow-worms Nightjar's song . V . . . 119 Contents vii CHAPTER XVII Highest road in Wales Red-handed thieves of Dinas Morning on the mountain Deceptive distances Geology Querns Shooting butts Merlins Birds teaching their young to fly "The eagle suffers little birds to sing" Stoats Catching a weasel asleep Vachddeiliog Cupid's darts . . . , . . . . 127 CHAPTER XVIII Rhiwaedog Roman and Saxon invasions Lywarch Hen Harriers "The Eagles" Kite Golden and White- tailed Eagles The king of birds- Druid's birds A dust-bath . . v .. . . 144 CHAPTER XIX Wild flowers Varieties of Viviparous grasses Geology Rock plants The lawnkeeper's best friend White flowers Toothache Cuckoo spit . 150 CHAPTER XX Ground-building birds Voles, Mice, and Shrews Carnivorous Goose- Welsh names Twites Cuckoos Superstition Plumage of Cuckoo . 159 CHAPTER XXI Sandpipers Spiraea hedges Birds carrying young Adventure with Sparrow Hawk Young Sandpipers The angler's invitation . . . 169 CHAPTER XXII Llangowr Yew trees Animals poisoned by yew Stock Doves Golden- crested Wrens Some other warblers Lime Calcium Ring Ouzels Pipits Butterflies . . ,, . ..- . .176 CHAPTER XXIII Crows A many-wintered Crow Crows and Grouse Effect of persecution on Crows Habits of Usefulness of . . . . . .184 CHAPTER XXIV Crows Confusion of names The Crow family Choughs Daws and Rooks Lessons of a Rookery Starlings Grubs Lucky birds . * 191 CHAPTER XXV Herons Recognising a distant friend Habits of Herons Food "The Heron never dies ". . . . . . . . 199 CHAPTER XXVI Ravens Habits and nesting of Corbies a Corby messenger The Raven's God Noah's curse Superstitions The Druid's rock The devil's rock Birds driving away their young A paradise of " vermin " . . 204 viii Wild Life in Wales CHAPTER XXVII More about Ravens Sagacity of Powers of smell in birds Cries of the Raven Raven and Collies Nature's scavengers Diseased Salmon and Grouse Strange tenacity of life Nature a stoic Flight, size, and weight of Ravens Food of . . . .... 214 CHAPTER XXVIII Fishing The great flood Peat Civic Braes Cwmffynon Ancient habita- tions Flint implements Gold mines A Roman Road Buzzard's nest Rush lights Stone walls A black bull Stoats Hunting with Lively Celtic imagination . . . . . . . 225 CHAPTER XXIX Walk down Dovey valley to Aberystwith Borth Predatory collies Owls- Witches Yews Vaughans of Mallwyd Nuthatches Wood Lark Red-barked Shrikes Jays . . . . . 234 CHAPTER XXX Ferns and alpine plants Tawny Owls Long-eared Owl Natural check upon Wood Pigeons Short-eared Owl Farmers' friends . . . 242 CHAPTER XXXI Cemmes Road and Dinas Attractions of Buzzards' nests Unequal justice Food of Buzzard Its powers of soaring Its mew Superstitions attaching to it Its only fault on a moor Shelldrakes . . . 247 CHAPTER XXXII Wire- Worms Crane-flies and Skip-jack Beetles Midge grass and rot in sheep Natural enemies of grubs Partridges Snipe Pheasants Moles Shrews The Water Shrew Development of races , . 254 CHAPTER XXXIII Curlews These and other birds sometimes remaining on their nests Curved versus straight bills Survivals of ancient type Food of Curlew Farmers' friends Eating eggs Whimbrel Dunlins Variations in form and plumage Garden pets , . . . . . . 262 CHAPTER XXXIV Local migration Pairing of birds for life Courtship, and the cause of song Plumage Stonechats Lichens as food Seasonal moults in Chats Welsh names ' .. .. . . ' * . T. * 273 CHAPTER XXXV Migration notes Tree struck by lightning Bleak spring weather King- fishers Unusual nesting site Curious Grouse eggs Waxwings and Hawks Fate of rare or conspicuous birds Cats Natural check on increase of albinos . ... -, ,. .281 Contents ix PAGE CHAPTER XXXVI Swifts Powers of flight Hibernation Seeing in the dark Oriental behaviour Ideal flying - machines Marvels of nature Freemasonry amongst Swifts Excessive destruction of insects Devil's birds Methody devils Swallows and Martins Jenny Spinners Life of an insect Nature's balance upset by man The difficulty of readjusting it . . 292 CHAPTER XXXVII Bats Drinking dew Superstitions A Nature-lesson Powers of vision Noctule and Rooks Bat chased by an Owl Edible Swifts' nests Bats, Swifts, and birds of prey in Borneo Cockchafer and Bat A chain of destruction . . . . . . . .' . . . 305 CHAPTER XXXVIII Badgers Superstitions concerning Otters Rats Assurance of A Water Hen's nest Tracks in the snow A bottomless pit Devils Keeping the Ducks off the spawning redds . . . . . .318 CHAPTER XXXIX Squirrels And Stoats A tree-climbing Stoat Foresters' friends Sure- footed animals Weasel superstitions Fairies A mouse hunt Stoat and Vole Stoat's larder Eels in winter An amphibious cat . . 325 CHAPTER XL Martens Comparative harmlessness of Pursuit of elusive dollar A young Marten Variations in Marten Marten and Polecat Tracking in snow Food, and footprints of Marten Homecoming of Reconnoitring of the beyond Shooting foxes Mange in foxes A hunting Marten Craig Llyn Dyfi Legend of Marten and Buzzard . . . 333 CHAPTER XLI Nests of birds of prey Sparrow Hawk's nest Nest-building instincts Hawks not deserting nests Moving a nest As bright as a Hawk's eye Method in its madness Repairing damaged feathers Mesmeric power of animals Powers of Vision Birds recognising different kinds of Hawks . . . "i. . . . . 347 CHAPTER XLII Hawks catching beetles Nightjars Other soft- winged children of the night Stage whispers Superstitions Notes of the Nightjar Its flight Distribution of pollen Study of a feather A wonder of Nature . . 356 CHAPTER XLIII Green Woodpeckers Ants Parasitic Worms Hewholes Retrogression Wild cherries Turn of the leaf Plumage of Woodpeckers Tongue of Stock Doves Falcon and Pigeon A stern chase Problems of Nature Ignorance of suffering Homer Pigeons The risk of a race- Stock Dove's nests And names Value of Fir trees Planting for game or timber Lessons in modification Buarthmeini St Tudor Lizards and Snakes . . . . . . . . 362 Wild Life in Wales PAGE CHAPTER XLIV Goldfinches Bird-catchers Dippers' nests Big Stone Pool The Swallow- ing Stone Superstitions Diving power of Dippers Harmlessness of A " Good little heart " . . 377 CHAPTER XLV Pole traps Burying a trap Cruelty of trapping Land Rails Invisible young Omnivorous Geese Geese and Foxes Fungi Squirrels and Weasels Cat and Weasel Dog eating Fox . . . .383 CHAPTER XLVI Castell Cam Dochan Roman remains Vestiges of introduced fertility Wild-flowers Gold mine Minerals Geology Birds breeding in immature plumage Peregrine's nest Powers of vision Moorland scavengers Bachelor Grouse Plumage of Grouse A keeper's rail . 391 INDEX ...... . 398 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE PHEASANT ON NEST . . . . . . Frontispiece HANDPLOUGH OR GWYTHIO .. . . . . .14 TURNING THE FUR . . . . . 14 BUZZARD . . . . . -. . . 30 GWYNIAD . . . . . . . . ., 30 STARLING GOING TO ROOST ...... 42 YELLOW WAGTAIL . . . . . .42 SPARROW HAWK'S NEST . . . . . . . .52 NEST OF LITTLE GREBE . . . . j . . 52 A KING OF BIRDS (WREN) . . . . . . 62 CHAFFINCH'S NEST ........ 62 GREAT-SPOTTED WOODPECKER . . . . . . 76 LANDRAIL ON NEST . . . . . . , 76 YOUNG MERLINS ........ 90 PEEWIT'S NEST ........ 90 MISSEL THRUSH . . . . . . 103 ON OUTLOOK FOR MAY- FLY (CHAFFINCH) . . . . 116 WATER RAIL . . . . . . . . Il6 FLEDGLING BUZZARD . ' , . . . . .124 A POLECAT OR FWLPAR . . . . . . .124 MERLIN'S NEST IN TREE . . . .- , . v 132 MERLIN'S NEST IN HEATHER . . . . .132 A WREN'S NEST SHOWING HEN . . . . , .148 " THE SPIRIT OF KING ARTHUR " (WREN) . . . .148 TWITE'S NEST . . v . . . . . 162 RING OUZEL'S NEST BUILT WITH STAG'S HORN MOSS . . 1 62 xii Wild Life in Wales PAGE WHITE OWL ..... . I?2 SECONDARY FEATHERS FROM CUCKOO'S WING . 1 72 WATER HEN'S NEST . ... 1 86 SANDPIPER'S NEST ON A RAILWAY BANK . . .186 CROW'S NEST IN MOUNTAIN ASH .. .196 A KEEPER'S VICTIM . .196 RAVEN . . . , 214 YOUNG CUCKOO . . i . - '. . . J .214 " THE BRIDGE THAT WAS " . . 228 A FARMER'S FRIEND (BUZZARD) x * ... . .228 WREN ... .238 RUSH CANDLE . ..... .238 MAY-FLY AT REST ON THE GRASS ... . 248 PEEWITS A FEW HOURS OLD . . . 248 LESSER SHREW .... .258 COMMON SHREW ..... 258 CURLEW'S NEST ... . . 270 CURLEWS JUST HATCHING . . .... . 270 FLEDGLING RING OUZEL . . . . 290 MARSH TIT . . "i ' . . . 290 NOCTULE WALKING ... . 3 l6 DAUBENTON'S BAT . . .,. . . ..." . 316 BANK VOLE . . . . . . , 326 A WINTER STOAT ... . 326 A DEAD MARTEN . ... . . 33 8 POLECAT . . . . . . . 338 LAVA AND SLATE ROCKS (iN SNOW) . -35 SPARROW HAWK'S NEST . . . . . . . 350 NIGHTJAR . . . . . ... . . 360 WILLOW WREN BUILDING NEST . . , % . . . 360 POCHARD DRAKE . . . . . . . . 376 THE MILLER'S CALON FACH (DIPPER) . , . , . . 376 POLE TRAP SET . .-, . : .. . . ,. ; . 386 A FUNGUS FREAK . . . . . . . 386 A KEEPER'S RAIL . . . , , . t . 394 PEREGRINE FALCON'S NEST . . ,; . .-. . . -394 WILD LIFE IN WALES CHAPTER I Introductory T.ack of English No schooling Music "A cup of tea?" Poultry Oatcakes Pancakes Eggs Lipton Dewar Small farms Wild sheep Leading sheep Collies Numbers of dogs and sheep Blue Merles Sheep-worrying Sheep fairs Welsh mutton. ON that branch of the Great Western Railway which serves the vale of the Dee, and carries crowds of pleasure-seekers every season to such favourite resorts as Llangollen and Bala, there is a small wayside station in the heart of Merionethshire named Llanuwchllyn. The village, hard by, which gives its name to the station, straggles across the valley for nearly a mile ; but its long line of low houses offers few attractions to the summer tourists who annually pass it by on their way to Dolgelly and Barmouth, and, save for the invasion of a mere handful of people who have discovered its charms from the contemplative man's point of view, it still slumbers in undisturbed and almost primitive simplicity. " The Land of my Fathers " is its anthem, and " Oes y hyd i'r laith Gymraeg" ("The Welsh language as long as the world lasts ") expresses the senti- ment of its inhabitants. " Bore da " and " Nos dawch " take the place of the familiar " Good morning " or " Good night," and the chances are that any elderly person, interrogated even upon such a simple topic as the state of the weather, may shake his or her head and with difficulty murmur " No English " ; or, if pressed to enter into con- versation, will have recourse to some younger member of the family to act as interpreter. Up in the glens, away from main roads, conditions are still more primitive, for i i 2 Wild Life in Wales there even the children may not be able to understand English, and, maybe, have never been inside a school in their lives. I met with one such instance on the way between Lake Vyrnwy and Dinas Mawddwy. The father, a small farmer, had, perforce, been to market occasionally and knew a little English, but neither the mother, nor her two sons, could speak a word of it. The younger of the boys was about fifteen ; but though neither had ever been to school, they could both play violin and concertina (the only musical instruments they had ever seen), by ear, remarkably well, and entertained us with a number of Welsh airs, while the good lady of the house very kindly gave us tea. Celtic hospitality is proverbial, and is as pronounced here as elsewhere. " Lipton " is the universal beverage of these mountain folks, and, as such, is freely placed at the disposal of the wayfarer by the dame who greets him at the door with the kindly inquiry, " A cup of tea ? " often her only English. The only alternative is delight- fully cold water from the adjoining spring, or " bitter-milk," a kind of whey, not very palatable to an unaccustomed taste, but greatly appreciated locally, and, maybe, quite as wholesome as the milk artificially soured by the lacto- bacilli preparations so much in vogue in other countries. Poultry are kept everywhere, and fresh eggs are plentiful, and their price, summer and winter alike, one half-penny each. Oatcakes, made from home-grown corn, sometimes home-ground too, 1 form a substantial part of every meal ; and at "high tea," for specially honoured guests, "fat- pancakes " are frequently the piece de resistance. I don't know exactly how these are made, but should imagine they floated in dripping. Before being served they are liberally buttered, so that they exude fat at every pore, and, to my uneducated taste, constitute about the most unappetising food it has ever been my fate to tackle. On one occasion, whilst we were enjoying tea with boiled 1 Bulleyne says : " Otes is a good grain e in the common wealth, for men, horse, and foules : as thei haue little other bread in many places of Wales, and Darbie shire. In Northumberlande, horse haue as greate plentie to eat of theim, as menne haue in moste places of this realme, Wheate or Rie, for their owne foode." Book of Simples ', folio xxx. Agriculture 3 eggs ad lib. in a cottage, I happened to recall a curious old poem, and quoted it : " The priest's rule is (a priest's rule shold be true) Those egges are best, are long, and white, and new. Remember eating new laid egges and soft, For every egge yow eat yow drink as oft." x When my companion, a Scotsman, humorously added : " It's unco queer, in fact as strange as true, That Lipton here supplants the mountain dew ; And yet, methinks, they'd sweeter be, tho' fewer, If thae same drinks contained a drap o' Dewar." It was from Llanuwchllyn as headquarters that most of the excursions referred to in the following chapters were made, and, if the area be somewhat circumscribed, it may be remarked that with a change of names many of the observations would apply with equal force to a large portion of Northern Wales. A stranger wandering through the mountains will be surprised to find how thickly little home- steads are clustered about the lower slopes of the valleys. They are chiefly quite small farms, each with its two or three inclosed fields, and to each is attached the right to keep a certain number of sheep upon the uninclosed mountain. Wire fences or stone walls divide many of the hills, or separate one estate from another, but the grazing on the larger mountains is often held in a sort of common interest to which each holding carries its appointed rights, set out by the landlord, and defined in the lease ; so that the sheep of many owners are pastured together. They are looked after, from time to time, by one or other of the farmers, and collected and driven home at such seasons as clipping time, but live otherwise more nearly in a wild state than perhaps any other domestic animals in Britain. Of course, it often happens that sheep find their way to wrong farms, and when one is so discovered, it is customary for the finder to attach collar and rope to its neck and so 1 The Englishman^ Doctor dated 1607. A translation of an early Latin poem. 4 Wild Life in Wales lead or drive it to its proper destination. The journeys to be covered in this fashion are often considerable ; and when first I encountered a man driving a single sheep before him like a pig, it struck me as one of the funniest things I had ever seen in agriculture. Inquiry elicited the information that he had a journey of more than ten miles before him, and as the "driving" consisted mainly of alternately pushing and dragging, his rate of progress when I found him was not very rapid. After a brief period of rebellion, however, the sheep usually give in, and trot along by their master's side, or in advance of him, quietly enough. The man is sometimes accompanied by a dog, or dogs, but as often not ; and in any case the help of a dog, in such circumstances, is little more than a moral support. The Welsh collie is in point of useful- ness far inferior to his Scottish or North of England cousin, though no doubt the reason of his deficiency may lie more in his lack of education than in want of capacity. The Welsh farmer, or shepherd, is generally far behind his Scottish prototype in his knowledge of the ways of sheep, and naturally his want of management is reflected in the training of his dog. It is a common occurrence to meet a man here with a flock of sheep using two dogs when one would amply suffice, if properly trained ; but the duty of one dog is entirely confined to driving the sheep away from his master, of the other to bringing them back towards him, and according as the one movement or the other is desired so either dog is sent on the errand. Nor does one see here anything of that fine understanding between master and dog that is generally so marked a characteristic of Scottish pastoral life. It would, for example, have been well-nigh impossible for such an incident as the following to have occurred here ; yet the author can personally vouch for its exact truthfulness since it took place in his presence. The farm was on the Scottish borders, and the herd had made a bet of an ounce of 'baccy that his dog, Moss, could understand every word he said. A sheep was " lying awkward " l in a field known as the 1 Lying upon its back and unable to get up without help. Welsh Collies 5 Long Haugh, more than a quarter of a mile from where the conversation took place, and quite hidden from the dog's sight by a high stone wall ; when the shepherd remarked, without apparent change of accent, and without particularly addressing the dog at his heel, " I'm seeing a yewe ackward in the Lang Hough yonder, Moss'll hae te gan an' rise her." Without further word or sign Moss ran off, went down the whole length of the field, found and raised his sheep, and returned to his master's heel as if nothing unusual had happened, as indeed it had not, for such incidents are of everyday recurrence where man and dog understand one another properly, but, as already mentioned, they could not occur in this part of Wales. The Collie found in these parts is a rather small, wiry, but well-formed animal, hardy to a degree, and an adept in the catching of moles, field voles, and such small deer, all of which he eats with avidity. Indeed, such perquisites form a substantial portion of his daily fare, for in a great measure he is shut out of doors at night and left to forage for himself, and as a natural consequence he is no great favourite with the gamekeeper. Where sheep are so largely kept, of course dogs are proportionately numerous, and under his lease a tenant is frequently restricted in the number of dogs he is allowed to keep. As an illustration I may mention that one keeper informed me that, upon his beat, the sheep allowed to be depastured ran approxi- mately to 25,000 and the collies to 250 ; but, as in a matter of this sort it is manifestly impossible to insist upon exact conditions, he added ruefully that he calculated the number of dogs to be nearer 500. A considerable propor- tion of these collies are more or less " Blue Merles," many of them beautiful specimens, with coats almost as patch- work in pattern as that of a tortoiseshell cat, and with finely broken-up wall eyes. The prevailing hue is a palish pigeon blue, often accompanied with white blaze on face and feet, and sometimes by rich red-tan points. If the recently established movement for the cultivation of the breed should develop, and the Blue Merle collies become as fashionable as Sables once were, then those in search 6 Wild Life in Wales of specimens could scarcely find a better hunting ground than Merionethshire, and as a consequence her farmers ought to add materially to their sources of revenue. In walking over the mountains one morning I came upon a little knot of men, gathered about a farm-place, whose actions rather roused my curiosity. One of them carried a very rusty fire-lock, which he promptly hid behind him upon my appearance, while another led a sheep-dog by a light cord, not at all an unusual sight in these parts. I suspected poaching, or perhaps some raid on a fox earth, and attempted to enter into conversation, but was met with only head-shakes, and seeing my presence was not desired, I walked on. Near the shoulder of the hill, however, I halted and, under cover of some bushes, turned my glasses upon the group. Presently the dog was led a little way up the hill, and its cord made fast to a stone, while the man with the gun shot at it from a distance of five or ten paces. The dog was evidently freely " P e pp ere d," and yelled piteously, straining frantically at its tether ; the gun meanwhile was being re-charged with all despatch. At the next shot the dog broke the cord, and fled, yelping, down the hill, followed by a volley of stones and much shouting. Later on, I learned that there had been some sheep worrying, and that a sort of drumhead court had been held on a suspected dog, and what I saw was the execution of the sentence, this being the usual method of "warning off" a dog against whom there was not sufficient evidence to justify hanging, the gun being loaded with small gravel, " dust," or even grain. The excellence of Welsh mutton is too well known to be in any need of a testimonial at my hands ; but the fore- going digression on collies may not inappropriately be followed by some reference to the Sheep they tend. Merioneth is essentially a breeding county, and annually despatches the increase of her flocks to the autumn markets. About the beginning of October, droves of sheep, several thousands strong, pass regularly through Llanuwchllyn on their way to Denbigh. They are the produce of many different farms, bought up some weeks previously by Sheep 7 dealers, or taken by them on commission, the former being the more common practice. Thus a flock, as it travels forward, is being constantly added to by drafts picked up en route, from farms large and small ; and long before it arrives at its destination has assumed a very kenspeckle appearance from the many different classes of sheep it contains, and the variety of the marks they bear. Ewes, rams, and wethers may be seen all mixed up together, and in addition to the baste usually the initials of their late owners which distinguishes their place of origin, they carry the peculiar mark of the dealer who has acquired them. Very interesting it is to meet one of these travelling flocks upon an open mountain road, and study the character of the various sheep, and the half dozen or perhaps more men who are in attendance upon them. An even more instructive, because more leisurely, view of them can be obtained at those resting places where a halt is made for a mid-day meal or a night's repose. In the latter event, the flock, turned into some small inclosure, seems literally to cover the grass, as wave upon wave of sheep pour in through the opened gate, and stream over the field in search of any " roughness " it may contain. The latter, as a rule, is most conspicuous by its absence, for most of the fields are eaten very bare, but the sheep travel slowly over the mountain roads and are always picking up a mouthful here and there by the wayside, and the stoppage at night is more for rest, so far as they are concerned, than food. The more hungry of them may stray to the sides of the hedges, there to crop whatever they can find, but the majority are soon lying down, and ere we withdraw in the gathering twilight, the field presents the appearance of being filled with wreaths of rather soiled snow. The nearer the bone the sweeter the meat is a very old axiom, whose truthfulness might very well be demonstrated by the animals under consideration ; for no sheep could well carry less mutton about with them than those commonly met with in these parts. Undoubtedly they might profitably be made to carry a good deal more, were 8 Wild Life in Wales greater attention paid to their breeding and selection. A comparison, not very flattering to the first named, has already been drawn between the Welsh hill farmer and a Scotch shepherd, and it is not desired to rub salt into what may be a sore place, too violently ; but it is safe to say that were but a fractional part of the care and intelligence displayed by the northern shepherd in the improvement of his flocks, brought into play here, the result would be highly beneficial to both the tenant and his landlord. It would be presumptuous to say that these remarks apply equally in every case, but with regard to many of the farms which came particularly under my notice I can fearlessly maintain that they are no exaggeration. The prevalent system upon which the draft intended for market is drawn from the flock is something that would make a Scotchman shudder ! The best animals are marked for sale, and those that are inferior returned to the hill for breeding purposes. This of course applies chiefly to the ewes, and it is super- fluous to remark that the selection of the female to breed from ought to be the first consideration of him who would improve his flock. But with regard to rams not much more judgment is displayed. Almost anything seems to be considered good enough to father the future genera- tion, and in some of the animals I saw being used it would have taxed the ingenuity of a judge to point out a redeeming feature. Steady deterioration, not improvement, is the goal to which all such roads lead ; and in face of what has been said, the inherent hardiness of the race of Welsh sheep, and the splendid capability of the mountains to maintain it, need not be further dilated upon. CHAPTER II Agricultural customs Changes of tenancy Valuations of sheep Types of sheep Clipping lambs Long names Contented farmers Black cattle Bulls Ploughing Threshing Winnowing Agricultural improve- ments Old milestone Meanness. CHANGES of tenancy in the district are infrequent, many of the farms having descended from father to son through many generations. The farmers are contented with their lot, and for the most part prosperous ; and old customs, if they die at all, die here as slowly as in most places. When a new tenant does come in, he takes over, by the customary valuation, the sheep stock of his predecessor, as in so many other hill-farming districts, and here, as elsewhere, though the custom is not regarded as altogether free from draw- backs, it has not been found practicable to replace it by anything better. That no imported stock could profitably take the place of the ewes that have become acclimatised to their surroundings through many generations seems to be beyond cavil, and that being granted, it seems to follow that they are worth something more to retain upon the farm than their mere value as ordinary drafts sent to market. The great difficulty is to keep that " something " within reasonable limits. Very often it may be placed too high by the umpire, who is the court of appeal when the valuers respectively appointed by outgoing and incoming tenants cannot agree ; human nature never has been infallible, but if the judgment of the umpire is not to be accepted, who then shall decide the price ? For the landlord to own the stock and let it with the farm has long ago been abandoned as quite unworkable, and open to even greater abuse ; and the other alternative viz. for the landlord to step in and put an end once for all to the custom by taking over the flock which his lease provides that the outgoing 9 io Wild Life in Wales tenant shall leave, and disposing of it to his new tenant to the best advantage he can, at the same time freeing himself from any liability respecting it at the next change in tenancy would in many cases impose upon him an im- mediate pecuniary loss, which he might not be in a position to meet, with a possible prospective loss of rental to the estate when the sheep came to be separated from the land. It would no doubt be an ideal arrangement for a new tenant were he able to make such bargain as he could with the outgoing man, untrammelled by any obligation to purchase ; but before that desirable end can be attained, it would seem that the right of the sitting tenant, under his lease or agreement, must be taken over and paid for by somebody. The most prevalent type of sheep is a white-faced, hornless animal, scanty of fleece, and long of limb ; but more or less of a brown mottle shows on the face, and often on the shanks of many of them, and in these the ewes show a greater tendency to carry horns. The majority of the rams are horned, the white-faced ones less invariably so than those that show colours. Black sheep are not very common, but some of the lambs are very curiously marked, some of them being spotted and patched with brown in a very picturesque manner. I saw a few that were almost perfect " black-and-tans." Scotch black-faces had been tried on one or two farms, and had left their mark on the fleeces of their descendants ; but they had not done well, I was informed, and the crosses were not favourites. The curious custom of clipping the lambs in their first autumn still prevails on many of the farms, almost the only excuse for its survival being the fear that the length of wool might impede the animal's progress in snow. To unaccustomed eyes the shorn lambs are much disfigured by the operation, and the value of the autumn clip cannot equal the loss in the subsequent year's fleece, while the half-clothed lamb in winter, should the weather be hard, is rather a pitiable object. When it comes up at the usual clipping time in the following summer, Long Names 1 1 it is a nondescript sort of sheep, neither quite " hogg " nor " ewe," and there is, in consequence, nothing of the sorting of the fleeces into those grades, as is customary elsewhere. Another survival of a barbarous custom still to be met with here and there is that of hoppling the rams and allow- ing them to run with the flock upon the hill in that state until the season, and their owner's judgment, shall free them from an almost intolerable bondage. A sheep, if it cannot be kept in an inclosure, is sometimes, also, tethered like a goat, with a long rope. When speaking of the marketing of sheep, there was one incident worth recalling which has, I see, been omitted. That was a poster announcing a sheep sale at a not very far distant village, that boasted in the name of Llanrhaiddryn- mochant. The name so tickled me that I carried off the bill, but alas ! when I got back to Llanuwchllyn I could not find anybody who was able to pronounce it ! Of course, this is very far behind the record in names, which is, I fancy, carried off unchallenged by the little station on the Menai Straits Llanfairpwllgyngyligogerychwyrndrobwll- Llandisiliogogogoch the whole length of whose platform is taken up with an abridgment of the name, which so little satisfied the inhabitants that they petitioned the London and North- Western Railway Company to extend the platform so that it might carry the name in its full and proper dignity ! Translated literally, the name tells of a Lady of the fair hazel pool, and Saint Tisilio of the red cave, but the story breaks off" before any incident worth recording is reached, and one rather sympathises with the Directors who refused a further blandishment of empty titles. Having reflected so much upon the management of his flocks, it behoves me, ere quitting the subject of agriculture, to glance briefly at another side of the picture in the life of my friend, the Welsh farmer. Friend I must be permitted to call him, since at his hands I experienced nothing but the most unvarying courtesy. He is still as patriotic as of yore, and, in his love of his native mountains, their wet flats, and 12 Wild Life in Wales rock-strewn sides, no whit behind his rude forefathers. Every yard of ground that it is possible to plough has been brought under cultivation, and, according to his lights, he does his utmost to make the land yield her increase. Neither labour nor expense is spared. Huge boulders, and earth-fast rocks, that impede the plough, are blasted and removed : the fields are tile-drained : lime is carted long distances from the station, often with four, and sometimes with even more horses attached to a cart where the hills are steep, and always driven tandem on account of the narrow- ness of the roads ; and all manure made is diligently stored and spread. In some cases artificial manures are also used to some extent, and all this for the benefit of a poor, thin soil, which in most parts of England would be considered dear at a rent of very few shillings an acre, and which no one would dream of ploughing. Oats are, of course, the chief cereal grown, but fields of barley are also frequent the old square-headed variety being the prevalent form on the higher farms, and even wheat is sometimes attempted for the sake of the straw. Most of the produce is consumed at home. I dare not commit to print the number of bushels per acre which in various places I estimated these crops might yield, nor does it much signify. Suffice it to say that the crops are very light. The farmer is happy in the im- provement of his land, however, and in the finding of em- ployment for himself, his family, and his servants. Scientific principles of book-keeping, and the apportionment of yield to cost of production, which have not always proved to be an unmixed blessing to rural England, have not yet found their way hither, and maybe it is as well so. When the time comes for him to hand over the farm to his son, he is able, perhaps, to look back upon a life well spent with as much satisfaction as his more advanced neighbour, and what else matters ? Primitive content is, after all, infinitely better than modern practices, with their too frequent ac- companiment of up-to-date grumbling, and, except that his " fruits " are generally confined to a few rasps, or black- berries, and his " flowers " to those which grow naturally on the hills, the Welsh farmer may, with far more truth than Primitive Content 13 most of his English neighbours, pledge the good old toast : " Let the wealthy and great Roll in splendour and state, I envy them not, I declare it. I eat my own lamb, My chickens and ham, I shear my own fleece, and I wear it. I have lawns, I have bowers, I have fruits, I have flowers, The lark is my morning alarmer ; So my jolly boys now, Here's God speed the plough, Long life and success to the farmer." Sufficient potatoes are always grown for home consump- tion, and a small quantity may sometimes be available for sale. Lime is almost essential for the production of these on this cold land. To meet with turnips, except in the wider valleys, is exceptional. Almost every farmer keeps a certain number of cows, the number varying according to the size of his holding, or the depth of his pocket. These are nearly invariably of the native black, or black-and-white breed, and are kept both for the production of butter, and the rearing of young cattle for market. About one in every three or four farms has a bull running with the cows in the fields or on the hills, and about a similar proportion of these " gentleman cows " will bellow and paw the ground in a manner very disconcerting to a nervous person. Not many of them may be really dangerous, but most of them will follow a retreating intruder on their domains, and probably few strangers will care to tarry to make their closer acquaintance. Fences on the hills are often far between, and sometimes not very serviceable when reached, and to be besieged on the top of a large boulder, with an angry bull pawing and bellowing around, and your only weapon of defence a cane- built fly-rod, is not everyone's ideal way of spending a pleasant afternoon. There were two or three rather nasty cases of goring during my stay at Llanuwchllyn, and I am not ashamed to admit that, on more occasions than one, I 14 Wild Life in Wales left the field with more discretion than dignity at the first growl of the enemy. It is said that you can always safely count upon delaying a bull's pursuit by dropping first a hat and then a coat to occupy his attention, while you make for shelter the most approved method being to stick your hat up on your walking-stick, leave an expanded umbrella, and so forth but I can only speak of these devices upon that hearsay evidence which so seldom carries conviction. Hay is, of course, an important item on all these hill farms, and is cut and stored from every available piece of ground ; but the fields are generally cropped so bare by the sheep till late in spring, that even with the top dressing of dung which it is customary for them to receive, the crop is seldom a bulky one. The tilling of the land is often a laborious business. Frequently the fields are so steep that it is only possible to plough them in one direction straight down hill while the dragging back of the empty plough to the top of the hill is sometimes harder work upon the horses than the return journey when the furrow is being turned over. Not uncommonly boggy land is cultivated, which is too soft to carry the weight of a horse, and in these cases resort is had to a hand-plough, or Gwythio y a most antique implement, consisting of a long, naturally bent, wooden shaft shod with a broad, shallow share, and having a cross bar at the other end, against which the man pushes. It is hard work ; but in soft, peaty soil, and taking a shallow furrow of two or three inches, a man is able to get over an acre in about four days. One part of a field, near the station, was ploughed (to the aston- ishment of sundry passing visitors, who were able to see only a man guiding a plough through the soil without any visible traction power) by attaching a long rope to the plough by which a horse at either end pulled it alternately back and forwards, in steam-plough fashion, only that the horses, instead of coiling the rope on a wheel, walked away with it each time a corresponding distance across another part of the field. Water power is of course cheap, where a mountain stream tumbles past the greater number of the HANDPLOUGH OR GWYTHIO. TURNING THE FUR. Threshing Flails 15 houses, and is made use of in several ways. Most of the farm-houses have a water wheel against one of their gables, for the purpose of churning butter in the dairy, inside, and too often it causes the dwelling to be very damp. Occasion- ally the water may drive a threshing machine, but this is very exceptional. Comparatively little corn is grown, and for the most part it is still beaten from the straw by flails, just as it must have been on the threshing floors of Egypt, centuries before the time of Pharaoh. The form of flail, or Blaen-ffust, in common use to-day is composed of two stout stakes, one as long again as the other, joined together by the simple arrangement of an iron staple driven into the end of each, one interlocking the other, or being connected thereto by a single chain-link. The longer of the two stakes is the troed^ or handle, and may be the branch of an oak, or the trunk of a young larch tree, bearing considerable resemblance to the ordinary stake used for holding up a sheep-net. The winnowing of the grain is carried out by an equally primitive implement, of home manufacture, consisting of a kind of windlass, made by fixing two wooden hurdles across one another and attaching a piece of sackcloth to each free arm. This is fixed on rough trellis supports, so that the bottom of the sheets, when it is revolved, may just sweep clear of the ground, and being stationed before a heap of corn, it is revolved by one man who rapidly turns the handle. His companion, meanwhile, standing by the corn, and armed with a pail, scoops up the grain and throws it towards the machine, the wind caused by whose revolving wings blows off most of the chaff and dust. This description is, I am afraid, more complicated than the machine, but it may suffice to convey to the reader some idea of the modus operandi. Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention ; but the first time I saw corn being " dighted " in this manner it struck me as being one of the best illustrations of the proverb I had ever seen, and I greatly regret that, owing to bad light, the photograph taken would not bear reproduction. It may be permitted to refer to one or two other little 1 6 Wild Life in Wales incidents which struck me as being peculiar here. Near Drws-y-nant, one day I came upon two men engaged in digging a field, one of them wielding a spade, the other, with pick and crow-bar, removing the larger stones with which the ground was liberally encumbered. The inclosure was one of perhaps two or three acres in extent, and perhaps a third of it had been already turned over when I first saw it. Later in the season a very light crop of potatoes was lifted from it, and it was difficult to suppress the idea that the original grass must have been of as much or even greater value ; but such " agricultural improvements " are of rather frequent occurrence in the neighbourhood. On another occasion a roadman was encountered busily repairing a stone conduit running beneath the road, and, to replace one of the covers which had been broken, he was making use of an old mile-stone, removed from a few yards away, where for many years past (as was evident from its hoary aspect and the cutting of the letters) it had stood to inform travellers that it was so many miles to Bala and Dolgelly respectively. There was no lack of other suitable slabs of rock in the vicinity, and I could not refrain from an expression of regret that one of these was not used in place of treating an old servant to the in- dignity of interment, sans ceremonie, beneath the macadam, but the reply was to the effect that " brand new metal posts were shortly to be put up, and that there was therefore no further use for the old stones, hence the sooner they were out of sight the better." In order to bring his country up to date a Welshman never allows sentiment to stand in the way of removal of old landmarks, but it is curious to note how improvements are hastened along in one channel, and allowed to remain stagnant in another. Meanness is foreign to the Celtic character in its uncon- taminated form, but that a little learning is often a dangerous thing is sometimes strikingly exemplified by those who have had the advantage of a certain amount of English education. One poor workman who had the misfortune to meet with an accident about mid-day, that incapacitated him from work during the afternoon, had the Meanness not Born of the Soil 17 half-day thus lost deducted from his wage when the account came to be settled by his gentleman employer ! Needless to say, the latter is not very popular in his neighbourhood ; but the Welshman very much resembles his Highland cousin in his respect for the proverb which advises " Whether for better or whether for worse. Be ruled by him that carries the purse." CHAPTER III Llanuwchllyn Bala Lake Cymmer Abbey "Bala has gone and will go again" Fair Vale of Edeirnion and legend of The Dee Grayling Salmon Trout Angling season Size of trout Pike MillerVthumb Pike fishing Perch Gudgeon Minnows. LLANUWCHLLYN, or, to write the name in full, 1 Llan-uwch-y- llyn, signifies " The church above the lake," and the village stands not so many feet above the present level of the lake, though now nearly a mile from it on one of several terraces left by the receding water, and formed by the deltas of the streams that here converge upon it from the mountains on either hand. Bala Lake (formerly known as Llyn Tegid, after an ancient Welsh chieftain, or Pemble- mere, " the lake of the five parishes ") is the largest sheet of water in Wales, and is, according to the Ordnance Survey, 1352 acres 2 roods in extent. Its greatest length is 6566 yards, and width 1276 yards : its greatest depth, nearly opposite to Llangowr, is 132 feet, but it is rapidly silting up. Its shores are shelving and shallow, and the debris brought down by each tributary stream has made large inroads upon its pristine area. At the upper end there is a considerable extent of marshy ground, the haunt of ducks, coots, and snipe, at certain seasons, and the presence of 1 An older spelling of the name appears to have been Llanywllyn, as seen upon one of the communion cups in the church, said to be of early seventeenth-century manufacture, and which bears the inscription " The Cup of Llanywllyn." The old church was replaced by the present one in 1872. An ancient brass alms-dish, presented by John Williams in 1868, has a representation of the Fall upon it, and is believed to have come from Cymmer Abbey, near Dolgelly. The Abbey was founded about 1198 A.D. by Cistercian monks from Cwm Hir ("the Long valley") in Radnorshire, under the protection of Meredyth and Gruffydd, sons of Cynan ap Gwain Gruffydd, Prince of North Wales. Cymmer signifies "The meeting of the waters." The Litany dish was made from a fallen branch of the old yew which still flourishes in the churchyard. (See Mr Hughes' Short History of the Parish, referred to in note to page 98.) 18 " Bala will go again" 19 submerged shoals here and there is betrayed by little flocks of diving birds always feeding over them. Bala ("The Outlet") stands at the opposite end of the lake ; near the junction of the Tryweryn with the Dee. Tradition affirms that it is but the successor of a more ancient town which now lies buried beneath the waters of the lake, and the popular saying, still current in the neighbourhood, that " Bala has gone and Bala will go again/' keeps alive the old belief, and predicts a similar fate for the modern town. The latter seemed not unlikely of fulfilment, when a few years ago it was proposed to utilise the lake as a water- supply for London, and when it was contemplated extending its present area by the building of a dam across the Dee some two miles lower down the valley, where the river has cut a narrow passage for itself through the rock. The valley below Llandderfel (the church of Derfel, a sixth-century saint) is called the Vale of Edeyrnion on the Ordnance Map, but the tradition just referred to assigns that name to the land now covered by the lake. Long ago, so the tale runs, a mighty prince, Howel ap Einion, dwelt there. He had built him a strong castle, and called it Einion, after his own name ; but, though the victor in a hundred fights, he oppressed the people and lived a life of self-indulgence. Many visions of calamities to come had disturbed the dreams of his ancient bard, and oft had the prince been warned by a still small voice that whispered on the wind, " Repentance will come at the second generation " ; but still rioting and bloodshed continued unabated. At length one day, during the progress of a great feast to celebrate the birth of an heir, a small bird hovered near the bard and beckoned him to follow, singing, " Repentance is at hand ; come, come, come." The old man scaled the side of the mountain in obedience to the entreaties of his little messenger, till it suddenly flew into the air, crying " Repentance has come," and disappeared. Hearing a rush of waters behind him, and turning round, the bard was dismayed to see the whole " Fair Vale of Edeirnion " engulfed in a vast lake, on whose troubled bosom floated his own harp, the only relic of town or castle, or their 2O Wild Life in Wales inhabitants, which he was ever destined to see again. The spirit of desolation appeared to him as " a great fish, white as the morning cloud," which carried the harp to his feet and then vanished beneath the waters, and that, it is believed, was the first of the Gwyniads which now inhabit the lake : the little bird hovering in the air, crying out " Come, come, come," is still personified by the Moor-Pipit. The Dee is a noble river as it leaves the lake, and affords good trout and salmon fishing ; it contains also plenty of grayling, but though the latter are caught in numbers just below the mouth of the Tryweryn, they do not appear to enter the lake, or at least I did not hear of any taken there, or in any part of its feeders. About Corwen, where they are a good deal fished for, I heard one person apply the name of Glasgangen to these fish, but otherwise they are always spoken of simply as Grayling. Most of the Salmon and Sea Trout, which come up the Dee, seem to take the Tryweryn in preference to keeping to the main stream and so entering the lake. This, it is said by some of the residents, was not always so ; and it is thought that a slight obstruction across the Dee, just below the lake, may have turned the fish from what would seem to be their more natural course. On the other hand, they may .find the spawning beds on the Tryweryn more to their liking. Another reason that I heard discussed was that the Tryweryn was the head of the original river, when the lake had a westerly outlet, and that " the fish really belonged to that stream " ; but such a theory would take us back to times as mythical as the submergence of the " Fair Vale of Edeirnion," and may be regarded as being as authentic as that tale. There is, besides, the direct evidence of residents that at no distant date salmon were much more abundant in the lake and its tributaries than is the case now. Be the cause what it may, however, the fact remains ; and if it be not presumption for a mere casual visitor to express an opinion on such a matter, it would seem to be one that is to be regretted. A few migratory Salmonid5 2 3* 55 I2 55 IO 55 55 55 55 2 "' 55 I 3l 55 J 52 5> 55 55 55 55 55 l 3 55 J 5 55 55 _55 55 5> 55 * 3 55 ^ 2 55 55 July 13. i6J 26J 24 Wild Life in Wales Aug. 4. One of 1 4j ins. 16 oz. From Llafar. 55 55 55 * 4 55 *" 55 55 55 55 55 55 *32 55 I " 55 55 55 55 55 55 I 34 55 *5 55 55 55 55 55 55 *3 55 *4 55 55 55 55 55 55 I 3 55 I 3 55 55 55 55 *V* 55 J 3a 55 I ^2 55 55 55 55 55 55 *4 55 ^^ 55 55 55 31. 1 6 1 8 Little Dee. With the advent of September, the decline in condition was rapid : early in October many of the trout were spawning in the Little Dee and the Eiddon ; in the Lliw and the Llafar they were a week or two later, and in the Twrch and its tributary burns the clearest of the streams hereabouts they did not, apparently, begin laying before November. On a warm day in July, when using the finest of tackle and a single fly a small " woodcock-wing-and-hare's-lug " I landed a Pike, near the mouth of the Llafar, of some two and a half feet in length, which took the fly under water, and was hooked literally just "by the skin of his teeth ! " Instances of pike being caught on a largish fly are not very unusual, but to find a large fish taking so in- significant a prey is always apt to strike one as rather extra- ordinary. How unsafe it is to draw inferences in matters of this kind is, however, well demonstrated by the observa- tions of Mr Wilson H. Armistead, who, commenting upon the food and habits of a large number of pike which he had netted in a lake to make room for trout, writes as follows : " In May we were amazed to find neither trimmers nor * otters ' of any use, and the number caught in the nets was less ; and the autopsies showed that the pike were feeding on the fresh- water shrimp (Gammarus pulex). Not only the small jack, but great fellows up to twenty pounds were gorged with them, and during this time they were more delicate in flavour than at any other time. ... It seemed to me a very remarkable thing that such fish as pike, possessed of powerful jaws, a huge mouth, and armed with countless teeth, should condescend to feed on such trifling morsels as fresh-water shrimps. This diet satisfied them all through Pike and other Fishes 25 the month of May each year, but at no other season did we find a trace of shrimps amongst their food." 1 To this I will only add that a Pike of about twelve pounds, netted on Bala Lake in May, after it had spawned, and which 1 saw opened, contained well over a pint of small fry, apparently roach, none of which much exceeded an inch in length. Digestion had, however, progressed too far to enable much to be done in the way of their accurate identi- fication. Germane to the subject, too, there comes to mind a Red-throated Diver, which I once shot upon the sea coast, whose gullet was filled with tiny Sand Eels, some of them scarcely thicker than an ordinary needle. Verbum sat sapienti is a time-worn proverb ; yet, with such valuable object lessons as the above before him, how prone the angler still remains to put up a more conspicuous fly, or a fatter worm, or minnow, when he approaches the hole in which he expects to find a big trout ! And how often is our judgment warped by suspicion when we see Rook or Partridge busy amongst the aphis-infected leaves of turnips, or closely scrutinising, for grubs and wire-worms, too minute to attract our attention, some freshly covered-in seed-bed ! One trout caught was gorged with Loaches, and another disgorged a Bull-head (Cottus gobio) of about three inches in length. This latter was in the Lliw. Though common enough in the Dee, below Bala, this little fish is not numerous in, or above the lake. The usual name for it here is Penbwl, literally " bull-head " ; but it is also known as Bawd y melinydd, or "thumb of the miller." Referring to the common English name, Yarrell says that it has arisen from the common practice of the miller of pressing his samples with the thumb of one hand over the open palm of the other, in order to gauge the quality of the meal, and that constant use imparts something of the shape of this fish to the man's thumb. The sense of touch which long practice gave to the thumb enabled a judgment to be formed of the fineness of the flour, hence the saying, " Worth a miller's thumb." Pike are numerous in the lake, and scarcely held in check 1 In Shooting Times of 5th October 1907. 26 Wild Life in Wales despite constant netting and the use of lines and trimmers. To the boats from Bala they frequently afford good sport, and in shape, colour, and quality, I doubt whether they are surpassed by those from any other part of the country. They are short, thick, beautifully marked fish, and, when in condition, excellent on the table. Ten or fifteen pounds seemed to be about the average size of the larger specimens caught, with occasionally one of twenty, or twenty-five pounds, but I did not hear of any heavier fish taken during my stay. There is a tradition that they were introduced to the lake in or about the year 1803, and that prior to that time Gwyniad were much more plentiful than is the case now ; but similar stories are so characteristic of so many waters where pike exist, and are looked upon as harmful to trout and other more desirable fish, that, personally, 1 have always regarded them with scepticism. There seems to be no valid reason for doubting that pike are as truly indigenous to this country as trout, or any other of our common fishes, and, that being so, where should we naturally expect to find them if not in large ancient sheets of water such as th,is ? It does not occur to anyone that it is necessary to devise reasons for finding perch, trout, or minnows, in any par- ticular piece of water, and why should we think differently about pike ? There is an ancient doggerel which tells us that " Turkeys, carp, hops, pickerel, 1 and beer, Came into England all in one year," but no one regards it seriously as a record of facts. Pike are frequently referred to as inhabitants of England in mediaeval times ; and Day, in his standard work on British Fishes, writes of it : " If we look at the geographical distribu- tion of this fish, it certainly ought to be indigenous ; while so far back as the reign of Edgar, we are told by Leland that one of large size was taken in Remesmere, Huntingdon- shire. In heraldry the luce or pike occurs in the arms of the Lucy or Lucie family so far back as the reign of Henry II." Though there are, no doubt, plenty of lakes and rivers in 1 Small pike. Our Native Pike 27 Wales in which pike do not occur (as there are in most other parts of the country), there are also many isolated pieces of water in which the fish is found, and where there would scarcely seem to be any likelihood of its having been introduced artificially. One such place exists close at hand on the moor between Ffridd Helyg-y-Moch and the Ddwallt. The mossy tarn which until recent years existed there, but has now been reduced by drainage to a mere bog, intersected by a widish ditch, and containing a few peaty holes, used formerly to contain numbers of pike, some of which sur- vived until only a year or two ago, if indeed the race is yet entirely extinct, despite the present circumscribed area of available water. I am no great enthusiast for pike fishing, and have certainly no intention of attempting to demonstrate that where pike do not already occur in trouting waters it would be advisable to introduce them. Such an idea may be dismissed at once as on a par with the fantasy that would encourage the presence of owls in a pheasant-rearing field for the sake of the rats they kill. But, admitting so much, it is yet doubtful to my mind whether a few pike in a water, where trout are not over-fished, are to be regarded as so altogether inimical as is generally supposed. If coarse fish, particularly fish like perch, are numerous in the water, and cannot be got rid of (as unfortunately is impossible by any means short of draining away the water) I should certainly never advocate the extermination of pike. A large sheet of water, such as Bala Lake is, abounding with many different kinds of fish, including pike, perch, and salmonidae, of which it is agreed that the latter are most worthy of encouragement and protection, may very roughly be com- pared to a deer-forest overrun with hares, rabbits, eagles, and foxes, if we suppose the condition that the owner may not enter it, but is only able to kill what he can from the boundary fence. The eagles and foxes may take some young deer, but to a much greater extent they will help to check the increase of the hares and rabbits which eat up the deer's food. A stag once fairly grown has little to fear from other enemies, but it is powerless to protect itself from 28 Wild Life in Wales the insidious foes that are for ever robbing it of the means of growing fat. There is, however, no occasion to labour the picture. In the water, pike and perch may be sub- stituted for eagles and foxes, and hares and rabbits we may imagine to be represented by roach or other coarse fish, but the deer make but a poor prototype for the predatory salmonidae. A big trout is almost as great a tyrant as a pike, and is well able to hold his own under all circumstances. He naturally frequents the haunts of young salmonidae more than a pike does, and in the course of a year probably accounts for the disappearance of more of his own species than fall to the lot of any half-dozen pike that is, of course, in places where coarse fish occur. Pike are always en- croaching upon the domain of the latter, and undoubtedly consume far more of them than of the more wary and less easily captured salmonidae. They are largely instrumental in keeping down the increase of perch, and of all fish (except eels) the latter are probably the greatest enemy of small fry of all kinds. Bala Lake swarms with minnows, and on a quiet summer evening I have often stood and watched small perch, of scarcely a quarter of a pound in weight, chasing minnows with such determination that they were themselves frequently stranded in shoal water, from which I occasionally transferred them by hand to my fishing creel. The minnows, in their endeavours to escape, were often left high and dry upon the gravel, whence they gradually kicked their way back to the water again, some- times to be at once pounced upon by the perch, who, half out of the water himself, one could almost fancy was gloat- ing over the struggles of his victim upon dry land, and deliberately awaiting its return. In several instances the same perch was seen to capture three or four minnows in rapid succession. One very serious drawback to having pike in a lake is the depreciations they commit upon young wildfowl. Where they are numerous, ducks and other birds will hardly remain to nest if they can avoid it, or if less dangerous places are to be found in the neighbourhood. Pike and Wildfowl 29 On one large lake, famous for its pike, a keeper once told me how he had actually seen a brood of ducklings dis- appear. The u decking " originally consisted of eleven birds, and he was watching them disporting themselves upon the water, when a pike rushed at them and seized first one and then another of the little ones, the alarmed mother hastily making for the shore with those that re- mained. A few days afterwards he again saw the brood, by that time reduced to five, near the same spot, and again saw one captured by a pike. A week later they had all dis- appeared, and his not unnatural inference was that they had all fallen victims to the fish. On Bala Lake one afternoon I was watching a Dabchick diving about near the railway line, when a big swirl disturbed the water, and as the bird never appeared again, and there was neither cover at hand for its concealment, nor any cause for it to hide, 1 have not a doubt that it was seized under water by a pike. Once when a half-pound perch was being landed on the lake, it was seized by a jack of scarcely eighteen inches in length, within a yard or two of my rod, and both fish were successfully drawn ashore. On several occasions my flies were taken by perch upon the Lliw, the largest of those landed weighing from i|- Ibs. to 2 Ibs. apiece : one of about half a pound, caught on the Llafar on 8th June, had not yet spawned, and milt ran from it like milk when it was handled. Some of the large perch taken in the nets were beautiful fish, highly coloured and very deep. The largest that I saw weighed a little over 2 J Ibs., but the keepers told me that occasion- ally much larger ones are caught, one four or five years ago having created a record of " about six or seven pounds." Perch becomes Perc in Cymry, and the Pike is T Penhwyad. I saw one or two Gudgeon (Crothell) taken by perch- fishers in the Lliw and the Llafar, but they are not numerous above the lake. The Minnow is Crothell y dom, or Sil-y-dom, and Bychan bysg. CHAPTER IV Gwyniads Numbers Dimensions and uses of Ancient lay Roach Rudd Breams Hybrid fish Eels. FROM time immemorial Bala Lake has enjoyed the distinc- tion of numbering amongst its inhabitants the Powan, or Gwyniad (Coregonus culpeoides), a distinction, which, so far as Wales is concerned, seems to be unique, and is shared only with the English Lakes as regards the rest of Britain. A very similar, if not identical fish, is, however, found in Loch Lomond ; while the Vendace (C. vandasius) of Loch- maben and the neighbouring lochs of Dumfriesshire, and the Pollan (C.pollan) of some of the Irish lakes, very closely resemble it. The fish inhabiting the English Lakes has hitherto been generally regarded as identical with the Gwyniad, but within the last few years specimens sent to the British Museum from Windermere and Bassenthwaite have been considered by Mr C. Tate Regan to present specific distinctions, and have been named by him Coregonus gracilior, on account of their more slender shape. 1 Gunther formerly bestowed the name of C. gracilis upon another form, and a good many other varieties, or races, have from time to time been considered worthy of specific rank by him and other authorities. There is one marine species (C. oxyrhynchus) which is occasionally taken on the coast of Britain and on the Continent, as well, it is said, as on the other side of the Atlantic ; others appear periodically to migrate to salt water. All the Coregonidtfy whether migratory or confined to lakes, are obscure living, deep-water frequenting fish, whose study presents unusual difficulties. They seldom 1 Annals and Magazine of Nat. Hist, for February 1906, etc. 30 BUZZARD. GWYNIAD. SO Gwyniads 3 1 venture near the shore, and are rarely caught except with a net ; are difficult to capture uninjured ; and, when taken, yet more difficult to keep alive. They present considerable variation in shape and colour, even locally depending, perhaps, on season, sex, and age, and specimens from one lake may therefore be expected to agree less closely with their relatives from another. They differ, in fact, in much the same way as trout and some other fish do ; and were a large series of specimens, from different localities, available for comparison, one variety would probably be found over- lapping and running into another, just as is the case with Salmofario and S. trutta. Under the circumstances it is not therefore surprising that opinions should be divided as to whether the genus Coregonus ought to be further sub- divided, or whether some of those already regarded as distinct might not with advantage be grouped together as mere races, scarcely even entitled to sub-specific rank, of one variable species. The latter is certainly the opinion of the writer, so far as some of the British members of the family are concerned ; and if, as seems not improbable, the whole are but the land-locked descendants of one originally migratory, or salt-water fish, then the wonder becomes rather that such long isolation, and inter-breeding, should have produced so slight a change than that the individuals from one lake should differ somewhat from those found in another. The geological formations of the lakes in which the fish occur may possibly be sufficient, in some cases, to suggest the possible period when particular races may have been founded, and, if that be accepted, the variation becomes relatively insignificant. How long it takes for a race to develop into a species, or what, exactly, the definition of a " species " ought to be, are always interesting themes, and the history of the Gwyniad, could we trace it, might shed much light on the matter. The young individuals from Bala Lake are much slimmer, more silvery, and altogether very different looking fish from larger examples ; and as both large and small, or old and young, appear to breed, it is curious (in view of the proverb that " like begets like ") that a large and a small race have not 32 Wild Life in Wales long ago been established. Perhaps there may have been, and in that case the small may be gradually supplanting the large, for obviously they must always have been most numerous, and large specimens are said to be very rarely netted nowadays. During my stay at Llanuwchllyn every opportunity was taken of learning as much about the Gwyniad as possible, on the spot. I talked with many people who had assisted in netting operations on the lake, or had seen the fish landed, and missed no chance of examining fresh specimens. It is some years, however, since anything like a large catch of Gwyniads has been made. One person informed me that about ten years ago he had seen several hundreds landed at one draught of the net : in previous years he had seen nearly as many taken on several occasions, but he believed that no such haul had been made more recently. These large catches generally occurred in early autumn, and at the Bala end of the lake, all the fish being practically of one size, and about 9 or 10 inches in length, "just like herrings," as he expressed it. He believed he had been present at the catching of most of the Gwyniads for some twenty years past, and never remembered to have seen one appreciably larger, with the exception of the two mentioned below. Sometimes a considerable haul used to be landed opposite Llangowr. The two large specimens referred to were netted at the beginning of September 1906, and were the largest that any of the local people seemed to remember, or to have heard of. The best of these was presented by Sir Watkin Williams Wynn to the British Museum, and was stated to have measured 1 5^ inches in length, and to have weighed nearly 2 Ibs. The other is preserved at the Goat Hotel, at Llanuwchllyn station, and was about an inch shorter, and about i|- Ibs. in weight. For the sake of comparison, it may be mentioned that Day, in his British Fishes, says, " This fish attains to 3 or 4 Ibs. weight (Pennant), and has been recorded up to 16 inches in length." But a fish of 16 inches would clearly not weigh much over 2 Ibs. The opinion of residents on the lake is that Gwyniads Dimensions of Gwyniads 33 feed upon " nothing except the green slime growing upon stones at the bottom of the water " ; but this is, I believe, entirely based upon the fact that none have ever been known to take a bait of any kind, and that some of this green stuff may have been found in the mouths of dead specimens picked up on the shore. The fish are believed to spawn in early spring, and it is supposed that it is when they are engaged in this operation that they are sometimes caught in a storm and driven ashore. This my own observations would tend to support, as after gales from the West, in March, each year, I picked up specimens floated ashore, all of which had either recently spawned, or were ripe for that event. A female, 10 inches long, found on loth May, and which had only just parted with her ova, may have been an exceptionally late breeder. From March 5th to 2yth in one year, I carefully examined five fresh specimens, all of which had died practically at the time of spawning. A male, about 9 inches in length, on 2yth March, contained milt nearly ripe for extrusion : another male, on 8th March, had very recently shed his milt ; two females on the same day having also spawned shortly before their death. On 5th March, the female, from which the accompanying photograph was taken, was found, her ovary still contained a dozen eggs, the size of No. 3 shot ; she measured exactly 10 inches in extreme length to end of caudal fin, so that the relative proportions as well as the position of the fins can be taken from the picture. The dark patches represent spaces from which the scales had been rubbed, and some of the fins are a little frayed. All the fish seen at this season of the year ran between 9 and to inches in length, and agreed very closely with one another, the ray formula in each being as follows : Pectoral 17 ; dorsal 13 ; anal 13 (15 in the case of one male) ; ventral 1 1 ; and caudal 20. The outer rays of the tail were reinforced by four short spines at top and bottom, making, if these are included as rays, 28 in all. The anterior ray of the dorsal fin is similarly strengthened by two such additional spines. The fins are very ample, and give the impression of a powerful fish in the water. In two 3 34 Wild Life in Wales males the adipose fin was distinctly and regularly corrugated, terminating in a finely serrated border posteriorly. Whether this was due to individual variation, or otherwise, can only be conjectured, but in both cases the marks were very similar, and not, so far as could be judged, accidental. The stomach is syphonal, and the very large cluster of short caecal appendages presents at first sight more the appearance of a bunch of ova than anything else. The lateral line runs along the centre of one row of scales, having nine and a half rows above, to the anterior base of the dorsal fin, and seven and a half below, to the ventrals, exclusive of the small elongated scale which appears there. In general colour the March specimens were very silvery and bright, shading from bluey-grey above to pure white beneath, the dark colour being due to minute dusky spots, or specks, upon each scale, increasing in size and number as the back is approached. These specks are clustered together near the centre of the scale, and give the fish a distinctly striped appearance, longitudinally, imparting to it a considerable resemblance to a Grayling, a feature much better brought out in Yarrell's figure than in Day's. The two larger fish, caught in September, were considerably darker in appearance generally, but I had little opportunity of examining them. In April, a few small, and no doubt young fish, were occasionally landed in the net. They ran about 4 or 5 inches in length, were very slender, and shed their scales so freely that it was impossible to handle them without disfigurement. They were even more silvery than the larger examples, about three-fourths of the body being white, and the dorsal area rather pale grey. Although generally returned to the water as quickly as possible, most of them floated away in an inverted position, and seldom seemed to recover. On ist October I saw a pike of about 10 Ibs. landed in the net, at the mouth of the Lliw, which, when held up by the tail, disgorged two Gwyniads, and was so distended that it looked as though it might have held a good many more. These two fish were so fresh that they were still quite stiff. They exhibited no marks of the pike's teeth, Other Fishes 35 and were in excellent condition. Both were females, with full ovaries of eggs about the size of No. 5 shot, orange in colour, but not excessively numerous. These fish were distinctly darker than those seen in spring, and relatively more elongated in form. Their stomachs contained a considerable quantity of more or less digested food, amongst which the only objects recognisable were fragments of some small insects, or their larvae. The stomach of the specimen photographed contained about a teaspoonful of partly comminuted matter, apparently composed of cyclops, and a couple of quite recently swallowed caddis larvae (Trichopter