Natural History and Folk-Lore

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DR. W. MALDWYN DAVIES's reference (NATURE, July 13, p. 55) to `gwas-y-neidr'-the Cymric equivalent of `ether's mon'-as the name for a dragonfly reminds me that `gwas-y-neidr' is a not unusual folk-name for the yellow-hammer, although perhaps the bird is more often called `pen-felen' (= yellow-head). In 1914 I was at Nevin, Carnarvonshire, where a man, about forty-five years of age, asked me if I thought that the `gwas-y-neidr' was really poisonous. He went on to explain that as boys his companions and he always smashed the eggs of the yellow-hammer if they found a nest, and that when in winter they caught small birds in his father's farm-yard, the yellow-hammers were always killed with a stick, as it was considered dangerous to touch them with a naked hand. The birds had been hatched from eggs laid by adders and the serpentine markings on the eggs in the yellow-hammers' nests were evidence of their reptilian origin; markings which elsewhere have earned for the yellow-hammer the less sinister names of `writing master' and `scribbling lark'.

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