found In thd County of SuJJex. if 



and alfo in their fize, but both of them, were larger than the com- 

 mon Petty chaps, Sylvia Hippolais. 



No. 74.— The Sedge Warbler. Sylvia falicana. 



This bird is feen here only in the fummer, and is then not very 

 common; it is a very lively active bird, which frequents the reeds 

 near ponds, and fings very prettily. 



No. -8. — The Wheat-ear. Sylvia Oenanthe. 



This little bird, which is found in great plenty on our South 

 Downs, is juftiy efteemed a great delicacy for the table, and vaft 

 numbers of them are annually caught in traps by the {hepherds as 

 they tend their flocks. Thefe Wheat-ear traps confift of horfc- 

 hair noofes, placed under a fod of turf dug out of the ground for 

 that purpofe. They are nrft fet up every year on St. James's day, 

 the 25th of July, foon after which time they are caught in num- 

 bers truly aftonifhing, when we refle& that it is a folitary bird, 

 more than two or three being fcarcely ever feen together. Ob- 

 ferving that all the birds which were caught in the proper feafon 

 had the fame coloured plumage as the hen bird, I made iome en- 

 quiries refpe&ing them of a fhepherd at Eaft Bourn, who in- 

 formed me, that the flights confiffed chiefly of young birds, which 

 arrived in the greateft numbers when a wefterly wind prevailed, and 

 that they always came againfl: the wind. He told me that on the 

 15th and 16th of Augufl: 1792 he caught twenty-feven dozen 

 with onlv a few old birds amongft them ; but this is a fmall number 

 when compared with the almoft incredible quantity fometimes 

 taken. A Gentleman informed me, that his father's fhepherd once 

 caught eighty-four dozen in one day. Early in the fpring only a 

 few'old birds are to be feen, and none (that I could ever obferve) 

 in the winter. I enquired of the fhepherd whether thefe birds 

 breed on the South Downs : the anfwer was, A few only. 



Vol. IV. I> No - 8a 



