Northumberland, 



561 



Sylvia salicaria, Sedge warbler. . 



cinerea, Whitethroat warbler. 



Rubetra, Whinchat. 



7Y6chilus, Willow wren. 



sylvicola, Yellow wren. 

 Coturnix major Brisson, Quail. 

 Lanius excubitor, Grey or ash- 

 loured shrike, 

 ikfotacllla flava, Yellow wagtail. 

 Muscicapa Grisolay Spotted fly- 

 : catcher. 



Muscicapa luctuosa. Pied flycatcher. 

 Ortygometra CVex, Corncrake. 

 [Nyctichelidon europae^us Rennie], 



Fern owl, or goatsucker. 

 Sterna cantiaca [S. Boysw Latham] 

 Greater tern. 



minuta, Lesser tern. 



Jifirundo, Common tern. 



DougalhV, Roseate tern. 

 Cliaradrius Hiaticula, Ring dottrel. 



- To this list I might have added the dottrel (Charadrius 

 Morinellus), and the redstart (Sylvia Phoenicurus); but not 

 having met with them myself, I have thought it better to omit 

 them. 



T/ie House Swallow (i/irundo rustica) is common here, as it 

 appears to be every where. Many of the swallows in this 

 neighbourhood congregate on the sea-banks, in search of the 

 numerous insects with which they abound. I occasionally, 

 during the unusually hot weather with which we have been 

 visited this summer [1831], walked there early in the morn- 

 ing, that I might the more readily examine the habits of some 

 of our summer birds of passage which more particularly fre- 

 quented that place ; and, among the rest, was highly grati- 

 fied at seeing from fifty to a hundred swallows skimming about 

 in all directions; and, what is truly extraordinary, in all their 

 numerous evolutions, they never came in contact with each 

 other ; but, crossing and recrossing each other's path, they 

 coasted along the banks, beach, and little inlets of the sea, for 

 upwards of a mile : the beauty of which scene I cannot de- 

 scribe better than by the following quotation from an elegant 

 author (Sir Humphry Davy, in his Salmonia, p. 79.) : — "I 

 delight in this living landscape : the swallow is one of my 

 favourite birds, and a rival of the nightingale ; for he glads 

 my sense of seeing, as much as the other does my sense of 

 hearing : he is the joyous prophet of the year, the harbinger 

 of the best season ; he lives a life of enjoyment, amongst the 

 loveliest forms of nature ; winter is unknown to him, and he 

 leaves the green meadows of England, in autumn, for the 

 myrtle and orange groves of Italy, and for the paltns of 

 Africa: he has always objects of pursuit, and his success is 

 secure: even the beings selected for his prey are poetical, 

 beautiful, and transient." 



2^he Martin (Hirundo urbica). Although this bird is ex:- 

 tensively diffused over Britain, yet I am acquainted with only 

 one of its haunts in this neighbourhood ; which being three 

 miles distant, I have fewer opportunities of examining its 

 habits than I would wish. 



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