Welsh Journals

Nov. 7, 1894. BYE-GONES. 473 a long time. When the young coots were hatched, they would follow their parents about on the pool; the latter feeding them with tasty morsels which the little ones seemed greatly to relish. The young coots returned frequently to the nest, either to rest or to roost. Even when leading the young birds about, the male bird would submerge its body at my ap¬ proach, but I never observed the female to do it. During the same month (May), I discovered another pair of coots with six young birds on a pool some dis¬ tance from here. The old birds were seen there last summer, but neither nest nor young could be seen. The summer migrants have now departed to a more genial climate than we can give them. The first to depart is the cuckoo; its familiar voice is never heard here after the last day of June, and but seldom after the middle of the month. The swift is the next to leave; it takes its final departure at the end of August; in fact the swift is about the last to arrive and one of the first to depart. It is like the father of the eccentric Student of Salamanca describ¬ ed by Cervantes in "El Buscapie," who was the last to begin in the battle and the first to leave off. The other members of the swallow family stay with us until the cold weather sets in. We had young house- martins in nests here the third week in September, but they suddenly disappeared the last week in the month, when we had six degrees of frost. The black¬ cap hovers about the fruit until the first week in September; the chiff chaff and willow wren until the second week. I heard the whitethroat for the last time on the first of September, and saw the last wheatear on the 22nd of the same month. Our resi¬ dent birds have been in flocks for some time. The starling i usually takes the lead, for I have seen immense flocks in the beginning of August. The chaffinches are in large flocks, the males and females being in separate flocks. Small flocks of the long- tailed-tit pay a visit to the gardens here frequently, and it is a pleasure to watch them flitting from tree to tree, searching every cranny for their insect food. The goldfinch we have in large flocks during the winter. I have often seen fifty or over in a flock. The first winter migrant to put in an appearance is the mountain finch or brambling as it is called. We have a large flock of this interesting bird every day under some old beech trees, where its favourite food, the beech-mast, is in abundance. The flock ar¬ rived in the beginning of last week, the 16th of the month, and as there is plenty of food, it is sure to stay with us until the spring. The brambling is sure to pay us a visit if we have a crop of the beech- mast, and it is always sure of a hearty welcome, for it is a favourite* bird of mine. The chaffinch, great-tit, cole-tit, blue-tit, marsh-tit. and ring-dove share the beech-mast with the brambling. Butterflies.—These have been exceptionally scarce here this season; last year butterflies and the hum¬ ming-bird hawk moth were very plentiful; I have not seen one of the latter this year, and moths of all kinds were scarce. Bees sucking fruit.—During the very dry and warm weather we had in June of last year, I observed the common hive bees sucking the juice of the ripe rasp¬ berries, a thing I never observed before. It was the first time I ever saw the bees touch fruit. They suck¬ ed the juice and left the berry a shrivelled lump of Vol,. III. New Series [being Vol. 12th from the beginning] seeds and pulp. When they were done sucking, they fell to the ground stupefied. Wasps.—These were abundant, and very trouble¬ some last year. Queen wasps were very plentiful last spring, but owing to the cold summer we had, there were but few wasps. The out-door fruits were left untouched by them, a rare thing here. But with the dry and warm weather of September they made their appearance in considerable numbers, and lately they became so troublesome in the grape- houses that I had to set about destroying their nests. I thought the frost would have killed them, but it seemed to do but little injury to them, and even after a sharp frost on the 22nd of this month, when I registered thirteen degrees, they were quite lively after the sun came out. I observed thtm dragging out the grubs from one nest and flying off with them. I was surprised to see a wasp able to fly off with a large white grub, quite as large as itself. I am in¬ clined to think they were robbers, robbing a nest to feed their own. We have an easy method of killing them here; we dip a sponge in a solution of cyanide of potassium, and place it at the entrance to the nest; this soon kills them, or stupefies them, and then the nests are dug out and destroyed.—Thos. Ruddt, The Gardens, Pale, Corwen. October 24th. NOVEMBER 7, 1894. NOTES. SIR THOMAS MIDDLETON.— This is from the Mercurius Publicus of May 10—17, 1660 :— " Sir Thomas Middleton, who lately with so much hazard of his life and estate, proclaimed his Majesty at Wrexham, did on Saturday the 12 of this instant proclaim his Majesty a second time ; since when he is gone to London to serve his Country as a member of Parliament." Devoniensis. TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS.—Cassar in his Commentaries states of the Druids that: "One of their principal maxims is that the soul never dies, but that after death it passes into the body of another being. This maxim they consider to be of the greatest utility to encourage virtue, and to make them regardless of life." Now is there anything that can be associated with such teach¬ ing still to be found in the folk-lore of the people ? Lately I spoke to a clerical friend on this matter, and he told me a tale which partakes of the nature of this teaching, joined with another teaching of more modern days. A certain man went to my friend and told him that his brother was in Hell, and he wished the rector to get him out. When asked how he knew his brother was in Hell, he said that he knew because he saw his brother in the form of a white cat descend a tree immediately after death. I presume this tree was close to the house of the departed. On further enquiry, this man stated that since the cat came down the tree, it was a sure sign that his brother had gone down to Hell, but, he added, if the cat had gone up the