114 ON PROCURING SPECIMENS OF BRITISH LAND BIRDS 



corroborate a remark which Pennant has made concerning it, that the 

 young follow their parents until the succeeding- spring. Mr. Selby 

 appears doubtful on this point ; but I have always noticed them, in 

 places where they are not much disturbed, to remain throughout the 

 autumn and winter in small parties of five or six. 



The swallow kind are in good feather for stuffing during the whole of 

 their stay in this country, as they do not injure their plumage, and 

 moult in the middle of winter. Four specimens are requisite to illus- 

 trate the common swallow ( H. rustica) ; the adult male and female, 

 and the young male and female in their first feathers. Of the other 

 species two specimens, an old bird and a young one, are sufficient. 

 The evejar (Nychtichelidon Europeans, Rennie) varies a little, some 

 individuals being much brighter than others, and the delicate pencil- 

 lings on their plumage being better defined. Three examples, male, 

 female, and young, should be preserved. This curious bird is not rare 

 in several places within a short distance of the metropolis ; I have 

 noticed it upon Penge Common, in Dulwich Woods, and in several 

 other suitable localities, especially about the Coombe district, where I 

 have compared its powers of ventriloquism with those of the little 

 grasshopper warbler (Salicaria locustella, Selby); [which species, how- 

 ever, is much its superior in the exercise of this strange faculty. It is 

 well worthy of remark, that all animals which emit rolling, thrilling-, 

 rattling, or croaking sounds, have the power of making their voice 

 appear to proceed from different directions: as examples may be adduced, 

 besides the two birds above mentioned ,the corn-crake, the water rail, 

 the frog, the mole-cricket, and various other Orthoptera. 



The evejar will often sit for hours, during the day, perched length- 

 wise on the top of some grey lichen-covered paling, or other similar 

 situation where its colours are not conspicuous, looking like, and 

 being often passed by and mistaken for, a large lump of mouldiness. 

 At such times, it will occasionally suffer itself to be approached suf- 

 ficiently near to be easily struck down with a stick ; but if alarmed, 

 it seems not much incommoded by the glare of day, but darts 

 off to hide itself in some close fern covert, often at the distance of 

 a couple of hundred yards, with as much promptness and confidence as 

 any diurnal species, and in a manner very different from what some 

 owls would do in similar circumstances. Of the various conflicting 

 opinions which have been advanced respecting the use of the pectinated 

 claw in this and other species, the most plausible is certainly that 

 suggested by Mr. Hay ward in the Magazine of Natural History for 



